^  PRINCETON,    N.J.  ^* 


Purchased  by  the  Hammill   Missionary  Fund. 


BV  2100  .G73  1899 
Graham,  J.  A.  1861-1942. 
Missionary  expansion  since 
the  Reformation 


MISSIONARY   EXPANSION 
SINCE   THE  EEFOEMATION 


Salvator  Mundi. 

Painted  hy  Leonardo  da  Viuci.    Engraved  by  Giacoiiio  Felsiug. 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


SINCE  THE  REFORMATION 


BY 

THE   EEV.  J.  A.  GRAHAM,  M.A. 

MISSIONARY    OF    THE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND    YOUNG    MEN's   GUILD 
AT    KALIMPONG,   INDIA, 

AUTHOR  OF  'ON  THE  THRESHOLD   OF  THREE  CLOSED   LANDS.' 


145  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  8  MAPS 


i»' 

f 

m 

|S,^T.l^ 

New  York      Chicago      Toronto 

MING    H.  REVELL   COMPANY 

1899 

AUTHORISED    EDITION 


PEEFAOE 

This  volume  represents  an  attempt  to  give,  in  short  com- 
pass, a  general  view  of  the  principles,  history,  and  present 
position  of  the  Missions  of  the  Keformed  Churches.  In 
dealing  thus  briefly  with  a  subject  so  great  and  a  litera- 
ture so  extensive,  it  is  not  easy  to  be  at  once  compre- 
hensive and  interesting.  The  only  trying  part  of  an 
otherwise  delightful  task  has  been  the  necessity  of  for- 
going very  much  that  deserved  to  be  included,  and  the 
Author  can  only  hope  that  the  book  may  supply  a 
stimulating  introduction  to  the  further  study  of  the 
entrancing  and  supremely  important  subject  of  Missions. 

Many  friends  have  contributed  to  the  preparation  of 
the  book.  Those  who  have  helped  with  the  illustrations 
are  mentioned  on  page  xv.  Most  of  the  chapters  have 
been  submitted  to  acknowledged  authorities  on  the  re- 
spective subjects.  Chapters  I.  to  VII.  have  been  revised 
by  Dr.  George  Smith,  CLE.,  the  Secretary  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Committee  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  and 
the  distinguished  missionary  historian  and  biographer; 
Chapter  III.  by  Professor  Dalman  of  the  Delitzschianum, 
Leipzig,  the  Kev.  Dr.  Thomas  Nicol,  the  Convener  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland's  Committee  on  Jewish  Missions,  and 
the  Rev.  W.  T.  Gidney  of  the  London  Mission  to  the 
Jews,  and  author  of  Missions  to  the  Jews  ;  Chapter  Y.  by 


viii  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

the  Rev.  J.  Klesel,  Secretary  of  the  Moravian  Missionary 
Society;  Chapter  VIII.  by  the  Rev.  H.  L.  Mackenzie  of 
Swatow,  late  Moderator  of  the  English  Presbyterian  Church 
Synod;  Chapter  IX.  by  Mrs.  A.  L.  Bruce,  the  daughter 
of  David  Livingstone ;  and  Chapter  XI.  by  the  Rev. 
George  Cousins  of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  and  a 
writer  on  South  Sea  Missions,  as  well  as  by  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Nettleton,  late  Wesleyan  Missionary  in  the  South 
Seas ;  while  Miss  J.  E.  Brewis,  Secretary  of  the  Scottish 
Auxiliary  of  the  South  American  Missionary  Society, 
assisted  with  Chapter  XII. 

Some  of  the  many  books  which  the  Author  has  con- 
sulted are  indicated  in  the  text,  and  in  this  connection 
he  would  make  special  mention  of  the  courtesy  and 
kindness  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  M'Murtrie,  Convener  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland's  Committee  on  Foreign  Missions,  of 
Mr.  W.  A.  Taylor,  M.A.,  F.R.S.E.,  Librarian  to  the 
Scottish  Geographical  Society,  and  of  the  Librarian  of 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  Mission  Library. 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Hort  of  the  Wesleyan  Mission,  Cal- 
cutta, and  the  Rev.  Robert  Kilgour  of  Darjeeling  read 
most  of  the  proof  sheets  while  journeying  with  the  Author 
to  India.  Mr.  J.  W.  Douglas,  Writer,  Glasgow,  has  pre- 
pared the  Index  and  seen  the  book  through  the  Press. 

To  one  and  all  of  those  friends  the  Author  would 
express  his  sense  of  gratitude.  He  would  also  respect- 
fully oflfer  his  thanks  to  the  Editors  of  the  Guild  Library 
for  their  patience  and  forbearance  and  for  their  valuable 
suggestions  and  corrections. 

Kalimpong,  Eastern  Himalayas. 


CONTEXTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

1.  The  Light  of  the  AVorld 1 

2.  The  Reformation  and  its  Influence       ...  6 

3.  Beginning  at  Jerusalem 12 

4.  Earlier  Calls  through  Empire        ....  32 

(1)  The  Dutch  Colonies 35 

(2)  The  British  Colonies 38 

(3)  The  Danish  Colonies  with  German  Co-operation    .  52 

5.  A  Missionary  Church 62 

6.  On  the  Threshold  of  the  Nineteenth  Century    .  80 

7.  The  Hindus  and  their  Neighbours          ...  96 

8.  Buddhist  Lands 131 

9.  The  Dark  Continent 168 

10.  Islam 199 

11.  The  Southern  Isles 207 

12.  The  New  AVorld 223 

13.  The  AA'orld's  Evangelisation 235 

Index 241 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


1.  Salvator  Mundi,  by  Leonardo  da  Yinci  .       Frontispiece 

2.  The  Light  of  the  World,  by  Holman  Hunt 

3.  "  Feed  My  Sheep,"  by  Raphael . 

4.  Reformers  translating  the  Scriptures,  by  P.  A.  Labouche 

5.  Erasmus  ...... 

6.  "The  Leaves  of  the  Tree  were  for  the  Healing  of  the 

Nations  "..... 

7.  Mount  of  Olives  and  Gethsemane 

8.  The  AVandering  Jew  (after  Dore) 

9.  Jesus  as  a  Boy  in  the  Temple,  by  J.  M.   H.  Hofman 

10.  Bishop  Alexander 

11.  Rev.   Dr.  Adolph  Saphir 

12.  Professor  Delitzsch 

13.  Felix  Mendelssohn 

14.  Jerusalem  Jews    . 

15.  The  Jews'  Wailing  Place 

16.  "  If  Thou  hadst  known,' 

17.  Behaim's  Globe,  1492 

18.  Calvin 

19.  Rev.  Robert  Junius 

20.  Seal  of  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts 

21.  Oliver  Cromwell ..... 

22.  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  of  the  Red  Indians 

23.  Rev.  Principal  Jonathan  Edwards 

24.  Seal  of  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel 

25.  Signatures  of  Indian  Chiefs 

26.  John  Wesley        ..... 

27.  Seal  of  Society  for  Promoting  Christian'  Knowledge 

28.  Augustus  Herman  Francke 

29.  Christian  Frederic  Schwartz 


at  Jerusalem  . 
'  by  W.  Hole,  R.S.A. 


11 
12 
14 
16 
19 
22 
23 
27 
29 
30 
31 
32 
34 
37 
39 
40 
43 
46 
47 
47 
49 
51 
54 


Xll 


MISSIONARY    EXPANSION 


PAGE 

30. 

Hans  Egede          ..... 

60 

31. 

Seal  of  the  New  England  Corporation    . 

61 

32. 

]\Iap  of  the  Moravian  Home-Land 

62 

33. 

Count  Zinzendorf             .... 

63 

34. 

Seal  of  Moravian  Church 

QQ 

35. 

The  Mission  Ship  Harmony 

71 

36. 

David  Zeisberger             .... 

72 

37. 

Schmidt  teaching  Agriculture  to  the  Hoctentots 

74 

38. 

New  Herrnhut  in  Greenland 

79 

39. 

William  Carey    ..... 

80 

40. 

Dr.  Coke               ..... 

81 

41. 

AVhitfield 

82 

42. 

Charles  Grant      ..... 

84 

43. 

Captain  Cook       ..... 

86 

44. 

Widow  Wallis's  House  at  Kettering 

87 

45. 

Carey,  Fuller,  Sutcliff,  Ryland,  and  Pearce 

88 

46. 

Dr.  Haweis          ..... 

89 

47. 

Missionary  Ship  Duff      .... 

89 

48. 

Dr.  John  Erskine             .... 

91 

49. 

Charles  Simeon  ..... 

92 

50. 

Dr.  Claudius  Buchanan  .... 

94 

51. 

Setting  apart  of  Judson,  Rice,  Newell,  Hall,  and  Noti 

:         95 

52. 

Hindu  Deities      ..... 

96 

53. 

Language  Map  of  India  .... 

98 

54. 

Asoka's  Pillar,  Delhi       .... 

100 

55. 

Oldest  Christian  Inscription  in  India     . 

102 

56. 

Mutiny  Memorial  at  Cawnpore  . 

106 

57. 

The  Queen-Empress  of  India 

107 

58. 

Lord  Lawrence    ..... 

109 

59. 

Serampore  College           .... 

110 

60. 

Dr.  ]\Iurdoch        ..... 

112 

61. 

Dr.  Alexander  Dutf         .... 

114 

62. 

General  Assembly's  Institution,  Calcutta 

116 

63. 

Bengali  Converts              .... 

118 

64. 

Miss  Swain,  M.D.             .... 

118 

65. 

A  Mission  Hospital          .... 

120 

66. 

Bishop  Caldwell . 

123 

67. 

Chuhras  of  the  Punjab    .... 

125 

68. 

A  K61  Catechist  and  Family       .              .              .              . 

126 

69. 

Bishop  Thoburn  ...... 

129 

70. 

Benares    ....... 

130 

71. 

Restored  Buddhist  Temple  at  Buddha-Gaya      . 

131 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

72.  Brass  Image  of  Buddha  from  Ceylon 

73.  Adoniram  Judson 

74.  Siamese  Missionaries     . 

75.  Temple  of  Heaven,  Peki 

76.  Confucius 

77.  Taoist  Priest 

78.  Ancestor  Worship 

79.  Si-gnan-fu  Tablet 

80.  Rev.  Dr.  Morrison 

81.  Opium  Smokers 

82.  Rev.  W.  C.  Burns 

83.  Rev.  Dr.  Griffitli  John 

84.  Rev.  J.  Hudson  Taylor 

85.  One  Hundred  China  Inland  Missionaries 

86.  Rev.  Dr.  Williamson     . 

87.  Rev.  W.  H.  Murray 

88.  Buddhist  Prayer  AVheel 

89.  A  Manchu  Pastor 

90.  Rev.  George  Piercy 

91.  Mrs.  Bird  Bishop 

92.  A  Shinto  Temple  . 

93.  Joseph  Neesima  and  his  Wife 

94.  Rev.  Dr.  Hepburn 

95.  Buddhist  Lamas 

96.  A  Slave  Gang    . 

97.  Language  Map  of  Africa 

98.  Native  Pastor  of  Old  Calabar 

99.  Bifcihop  Crowther 

100.  Dr.  Vanderkemp 

101.  Dr.  Moffat 

102.  Dr.  Stewart  of  Lovedale 

103.  Dr.  Livingstone 

104.  Mrs.  Livingstone's  Grave 

105.  Bishop  Mackenzie 

106.  Dr.  Laws 

107.  Blantyre  Church 

108.  Dr.  Krapf 

109.  Rev.  A.  M.  Mackay       . 

110.  Bishop  Hannington 

111.  H.  M.  Stanley   . 

112.  Some  Missionary  Heroes  of  the  Congo 

113.  The  Kiiaba  at  Mecca 


Xill 

PAGE 

134 
136 
138 
140 
141 
142 
143 
144 
145 
148 
149 
150 
151 
152 
154 
154 
155 
157 
158 
160 
162 
164 
165 
167 
168 
170 
174 
177 
179 
180 
182 
185 
187 
189 
190 
191 
192 
194 
194 
196 
198 
199 


XIV  MISSIONARY    EXPANSION 

114.  The  Sultan  of  Turkey   . 

115.  The  Mosque  of  Omar     . 

116.  Rev.  Henry  Marty n 

117.  The  Jama  Musjid,  Delhi 

118.  Otaheite  or  Tahiti 

119.  A  National  God  of  Polynesia 

120.  Captain  James  AVilson  . 

121.  Rev.  John  Williams 

122.  Rev.  John  Hunt 

123.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  G.  Paton    . 

124.  Bishop  Patteson 

125.  Rev.  Samuel  Marsden   . 

126.  Rev.  James  Chalmers    . 

127.  Papeiha,  the  Rarotongan  Teacher 

128.  Ruatoka  and  his  AVife,  New  Guinea 

129.  King  Radama  I.  of  Madagascar 

130.  An  Old  Malagasy  Bible 

131.  Rev.  William  Ellis 

132.  A  Martyr  Memorial  Church,  Madagascar 

133.  Columbus's  Three  Ships  and  the  latest  Cunarder 

134.  Ruins  of  Old  Palace  of  Kabah,  Central  America 

135.  Rev.  William  Kuibb      .... 

136.  American  Indian  Christians 

137.  Metlakahtla  Church  and  Indian  Band 

138.  The  Neglected  Continent 

139.  Captain  Allen  Gardiner,  R.N.  . 

140.  Missionaries  and  Indians  of  the  Gran  Chaco     . 

141.  1798— 1898— When  ?      .... 

142.  Religious  Census  of  the  World 

143.  Proportion  of  Converts  to  Unconverted  Heathen 

144.  Missionary  and  other  Expenditure 

145.  "  The  Word  of  the  Lord  endureth  for  ever  "    . 


PAGE 
201 

203 
204 
206 
207 
208 
209 
210 
211 
213 
213 
214 
215 
215 
216 
218 
219 
220 
222 
223 
224 
226 
228 
230 
232 
233 
234 
235 
236 
237 
238 
240 


MAPS 


1. 

The  World  in  Hemispheres 

Opposite 

2Jacje 

1 

2. 

India      .... 

,j 

5» 

96 

3. 

China  and  Japan 

.J 

JJ 

131 

4. 

Africa     .... 

j> 

JJ 

168 

5. 

Turkish  Empire 

;> 

9> 

199 

ILLUSTKATIONS  xv 

6.  Oceania  .....  Opposite  page       207 

7.  North  America  .             .             .             .  ,,          ,,          223 

8.  Map  of  the  World  sliowing  tlie  Prevail- 

ing Religions  .             .             .             .  ,,          ,,          235 


NOTE  ON  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS 

The  Author  gratefully  acknowledges  the  kindness  of  the  many  Authors 
and  Publishers  who  havo  given  permission  to  reproduce  engravings  or  illustra- 
tions from  their  books.  In  addition  to  those  cases  in  which  the  source  of 
indebtedness  is  mentioned  under  the  pictures,  warm  thanks  are  due  to  W. 
Hole,  Esq.,  R.S.A.,  for  liberty  to  use  his  beautiful  picture  (No.  16),  and  to 
the  following  for  furnishing  the  illustrations  indicated  by  their  respective 
numbers  in  the  above  list :— The  Secretaries  of  the  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign  Missions  (40,  51,  93);  the  American  Presbyterian  Board 
(North),  (74,  94);  the  Rev.  W.  T.  Gidney,  London  (10) ;  the  Rev.  James  Smith, 
Aberdeen  (7) ;  W.  M.  Venning,  Estj.,  D.C.L.  (31)  ;  Rev.  J.  Klesel,  of  the  Moravian 
Missionary  Society  (32  to  37)  ;  Alfred  Baynes,  Esq.,  of  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society  (39,  44,  45,  135);  the  London  Missionary  Society  (47,  83,  120);  Rev. 
Dr.  H.  C.  G.  Moule,  Cambridge  (49) ;  Rev.  Dr.  Youngson,  Sialkote  (54,  67) ; 
Alexander  Murdoch,  Esq.,  Glasgow  (60) ;  Rev.  Kenneth  D.  M'Laren,  Aberdeen 
(63);  Rev.  J.  L.  Wyatt,  Cambridge  (66);  Rev.  Robert  Buchanan,  B.D.,  Edin- 
burgh (70);  Sir  M.  Monier  Williams  (71,  72);  John  Cochrane,  Esq.,  of  U.P. 
Church  Offices,  Edinburgh  (79,  89,  98);  Walter  B.  Sloan,  Esq.,  China  Inland 
Mission  (84,  85);  W.  A.  Dawson,  Esq.,  Scottish  Bible  Society  (86);  Miss 
Gordon  Gumming  (87) ;  Rev.  George  Piercey  (90)  ;  Mrs.  Bird  Bishop  (91)  ;  Rev. 
Dr.  George  Smith,  Edinburgh  (102,  106);  Mrs.  A.  L.  Bruce,  Edinburgh  (104) ; 
Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly,  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  Book  Room  (122);  the  Religious 
Tract  Society  (125);  and  Eugene  Stock,  Esq.,  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  (137). 

The  Illustrations  testify  to  the  care  of  the  plioto  engiavers,  Messrs.  M.  and 
T.  Scott,  Leadervale  Works,  Edinburgh. 

The  coloured  maps  are  by  Messrs.  W.  and  A.  K.  Johnston.  In  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  map  of  tlie  Prevailing  Religions  help  has  been  received  from  the 
Map  in  Dr.  Pierson's  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  from  the  admirable  Atlas  of 
the  Church  Missionary  Society. 


PUBLISHER'S  NOTES 

a.  The  author  alludes  to  Colonel  Williamson's  attack  on  the 
Delaware  towns  on  the  Muskingum  in  1T82,  made  in  return  for 
savage  attacks  by  the  Indians  from  Sandusky.  The  general 
impression  prevailed  throughout  Western  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia  that  all  the  Delawares  sympathized  with  the  British 
and  were  hostile  to  American  interests.  But  although  the 
massacre  was  wrong  and  horrible,  at  the  same  time  it  should 
be  Judged  in  the  light  of  the  circumstances  and  conceptions  of 
the  times  (p.  73). 

h.  Whatever  may  finally  be  done  with  Cuba,  it  is  certain 
that  the  "remnant"  to  which  the  author  refers  has  passed  for 
ever  from  the  control  of  Spain  (p.  225). 


The  Light  of  the  World. 

•'  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock. 

From,  file  Picture  by  Hohnan  Hunt. 

'iejjroUuceU  and  Published  hy  The  Aut<jtype  Coiuixiuy, 

Oxford  Street,  JLoiidyu,  W.C. 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   LIGHT    OF    THE 
WORLD 

The  subject  of  Christian 
Missions  is  Jesus  Christ, 
"  the  true  Light,  which 
lighteth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world^" 
and  their  object  "to 
bear  witness  of  the 
Light,  that  all  men 
through  Him  might  be- 
lieve." God,  indeed, 
"  left  not  Himself  with- 
out a  witness  "  among 
the  nations  at  any- 
period.  Men,  too,  ceased 
not  to  grope  after  Cod, 
and  by  priest  and  sacri- 
fice, by  oracle  and  philo- 
sophy, sought  Him,  "if 
haply  they  might  find 
Him."  The  children  of 
Israel  were  the  specially 
chosen  missionary  nation 
to  be  a  blessing  to  the 
earth;   and   unto  them 


2  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

God,  "  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners,"  revealed 
Himself,  till  in  the  fulness  of  time  "  the  Word  was  made 
flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,"  and  the  ever-glorious  Gospel 
was  evidently  declared — "God  so  loved  the  world,  that 
He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Him  might  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 
Christ  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil.  That  which  was 
in  part  was  now  made  clear  by  that  which  is  perfect.  The 
scattered  and  broken  rays  of  truth  showed  their  true  source 
in  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness.  By  His  revelation  of  the 
one  loving  God  and  Father  of  all  men,  of  the  one  great 
need  of  humanity,  and  of  the  one  perfect  provision  for 
it  through  the  Saviour,  who  was  also  the  Son  of  Man, 
"the  idea  of  mankind  as  one  family,  as  the  children  of 
one  God,"  was  created.  All  enlightened  men  since  then 
have  combined,  in  diflferent  vocabulary  it  may  be,  but  not 
uncertainly,  to  join  in  the  joyful  ascription,  "  Worthy  is 
the  Lamb  that  was  slain."  An  eloquent  Indian,  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen,  never  a  member  of  the  Christian  Church, 
though  profoundly  influenced  by  Christ,  thus  expresses 
the  thought,  although  he  may  not  have  entered  into  the 
fulness  of  its  meaning :  "  Verily,  when  we  read  His  life. 
His  meekness,  like  the  soft  moon,  ravishes  the  heart  and 
bathes  it  in  a  flood  of  serene  light ;  but  when  we  come  to 
the  grand  consummation  of  His  career,  His  death  on  the 
Cross,  behold.  He  shines  as  the  powerful  sun  in  its 
meridian  splendour."  Surely  it  was  Jesus  who  brought  in 
the  era  heralded  by  angel-song,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  peace  on  earth,  good  will  among  men." 

Jesus  is  not  only  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  but  is  also 
the  great  Missionary  Exemplar,  the  "  Sent "  of  the 
Father,  the  Declarer  of  the  purposes  of  God,  the  infinitely 
compassionate  Teacher  and  Healer  of  the  people.  The 
Gospels  record  the  code  of  principles  for  the  kingdom; 
His  parables  foretell  its  growth  and  ultimate  universal 


THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD  3 

triumph ;  and  in  the  training  and  sending  forth  of  His 
discijJes  are  exemplified  the  methods  of  the  missionary 
campaign.  Above  all,  when  He  had  finished  His  work  on 
earth,  and  was  on  the  point  of  substituting  for  His  bodily 
presence  His  omnipresence  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  He 
gave  His  disciples,  and  through  them  the  members  of 
His  Church  for  all  time,  those  marching  orders  recorded 
with  a  suggestive  fulness  and  frequency  : — 


St.  Matthew 
xxviii.  18-20. 

All  authority  Viath 
been  given  unto  Me  in 
heaven  and  on  earth. 
Go  ye  therefore,  and 
make  disciples  of  all 
tlie  nations,  baptiz- 
ing them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father 
and  of  the  Son  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost : 
teaching  them  to 
observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  com- 
manded you  :  and  lo, 
I  am  witii  you  alway, 
even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world. 


St.  Mark 
xvi.  15. 

Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  the 
whole  creation.  He 
that  believeth  and 
is  baptized  shall  be 
saved ;  but  he  that 
disbelieveth  shall  be 
condemned. 


St.  Luke 
xxiv.  46-49. 

Thus  it  is  written, 
that  the  Christ 
should  suffer,  and 
rise  again  from  the 
dead  the  third  day ; 
and  that  repentance 
and  remission  of  sins 
should  be  preached 
in  His  name  unto  all 
the  nations,  begin- 
ning from  Jerusalem. 
Ye  are  witnesses  of 
these  things.  And 
behold,  I  send  forth 
the  promise  of  My 
Father  upon  you. 


St.  John 
XX.  21,  22. 

As  the  Father  hath 
sent  Me,  even  so  send 
I  you. 

Acts  of  the 

Apostles 

1.  8-10. 

Ye  shall  receive 
power,  when  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  come 
upon  you :  and  ye 
shall  be  My  wit- 
nesses both  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  in  all 
Judaea  and  Samai'ia, 
and  unto  the  utter- 
most part  of  the 
earth. 


This  fundamental  missionary  idea,  which  is  insepar- 
able from  the  genius  of  Christianity,  is  made  a  life-law 
to  the  Christian  Church  by  the  living  example  and  the 
clear  and  direct  commands  of  Christ ;  and  her  one  great 
work  during  the  "magnificent  parenthesis  of  history 
between  the  ascension  and  coming  again  "  of  Christ  is  to 
witness  for  Him  "unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth." 
Thus  from  the  beginning  was  Christ's  kingdom  made 
universal,  its  only  limit  being  the  extent  of  the  human 
race. 

The  Bible  is  full  of  missions.  Directly,  and  still 
more  by  implication,  the  Old  Testament  sets  forth  the 
duty,  and  in  almost  every  New  Testament  book  it  is 
prominent.     More  especially  are  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel 


4  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

shown  as  put  in  practice  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
which  has  been  termed  the  "  Gospel  of  the  Holy  Ghost," 
for  it  contains  the  record  of  the  acts  done  in  the  power  of 
that  living  personal  influence  promised  for  the  work  of 
missions  by  the  ascending  Lord.  It  tells  of  the  pre- 
liminary and  all -important  endowment  of  the  Spirit,  of 
His  commission  and  gifts  to  the  missionaries,  and  of  the 
results  which  followed,  forming,  as  Dr.  A.  T.  Pierson  has 
said,  "  one  great  inspired  Book  of  Missions  :  God's  own 
Commentary  and  Cyclopaedia  for  all  ages  as  to  every 
question  that  touches  the  world's  evangelisation."  But 
the  book  is  necessarily  incomplete.  It  gives  only  part  of 
the  story  of  thirty-three  years — the  first  generation  of  the 
Christian  Church,  It  is  but  the  beginning  of  a  book,  to 
which  fresh  chapters  will  be  added  until  the  time  of  the 
*'  new  heaven "  and  the  "  new  earth "  foretold  in  the 
missionary  Apocalypse. 

The  history  of  the  missionary  expansion  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches  should  supply, — on  a  lower  level  indeed, 
and  perforce  often  uncertainly, — some  of  the  more  recent 
chapters  of  the  Gospel's  progress,  and  should  exhibit  part 
of  that  great  plan  for  the  bringing  in  of  all  men  to  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Its  aim  should  not  be  so  much  to 
indicate  how  this  or  that  ecclesiastical  body  has  grown, 
but  how  and  to  what  extent  the  marching  orders  have 
been  obeyed  in  relation  to  the  unevangelised  portions  of 
the  world.  The  incidents  of  mission  history  are  often 
both  interesting  and  romantic.  The  object  of  history, 
however,  is  not  merely,  as  has  been  well  expressed, 
"to  gratify  the  reader's  curiosity  about  the  past,  but 
modify  his  view  of  the  present  and  his  forecast  of  the 
future."  Much  of  the  prevailing  apathy  on  the  subject  of 
missions  is  due  not  to  wilful  disloyalty  to  Christ,  but  to 
ignorance  of  the  facts  necessary  to  add  fuel  to  faith  and 
to  remove  the  misgiving  in  many  minds  as  to  the  com- 


THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD  5 

parative  failure  of  modern  mission  work.  History  is  the 
proper  basis  of  prophecy,  and  is,  as  the  late  Bishop  Light- 
foot  said,  in  comparing  ancient  and  modern  missions, 
"  an  excellent  cordial  to  drooping  courage.  ...  It  will  be 
found,  if  I  mistake  not,  that  the  resemblances  of  early  and 
recent  missions  are  far  greater  than  their  contrasts ;  that 
both  alike  have  had  to  surmount  the  same  difficulties,  and 
been  chetj^uered  by  the  same  vicissitudes  ;  that  both  alike 
exhibit  the  same  inequalities  of  progress,  the  same  alter- 
nations of  success  and  failure,  periods  of  acceleration 
followed  by  i)eriods  of  retardation,  when  the  surging  wave 
has  been  sucked  back  in  the  retiring  current,  while  yet 
the  flood  has  been  rising  steadily  all  along,  though  the 
unobservant  eye  might  fail  to  mark  it,  advancing  towards 
that  final  consummation  when  the  earth  shall  be  covered 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the 
sea," 


The  Charge  to  Peter  :  ••  Kkeu  Mv  Sheei'. 
From  Cartoon  by  Raphael.    Engraved  by  Alex.  T.  Aikman. 


Melanchthon,  Luther,  Pomeranus,  and  Cruciger 

translating  the  scriptures. 
Painted  by  P.  A.  Labouchere.     Engraved  by  Leon  Noel. 


CHAPTER    II 


THE   EEFORMATION    AND    ITS    INFLUENCE 


"Each  new  convert  to  Christianity,"  says  Gibbon,  con- 
sidered it  a  most  sacred  duty  "  to  diffuse  among  his  friends 
and  relations  the  inestimable  blessings  which  he  had 
received."  That  is  the  secret  of  the  divinely  appointed 
missionary  march  of  Christianity,  "  converting,  advancing, 
aggressive,  encompassing  the  world."  ^  From  its  Syrian 
cradle  the  Gospel  spread  eastwards  -  through  Asia,  south- 


^  Max  Miiller. 

2  For  pre-Reforniation  history  of  the  Church  see  Professor  Cowan's 


Landmarks  of  Church  History  (Revell). 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  ITS  INFLUENCE  7 

wards  to  Africa,  and  across  the  Hellespont  into  Europe. 
In  1054,  when  the  great  schism  between  the  Eoman 
and  Eastern  Churches  was  finally  consummated,  Europe 
was  virtually  a  Christian  continent. 

But  the  forward  movement  had  not  been  without 
serious  check.  In  many  parts  of  Christendom  "  the  candle 
of  the  Lord  burned  with  a  dim  and  impure  flame,  and  the 
sentence  went  forth  regarding  a  large  portion  of  Christen- 
dom that  the  candlestick  should  be  removed."  Formal- 
ism and  idolatry  abounded.  The  necessary  missionary 
character  of  the  Church  was  forgotten,  with  the  certain 
result,  according  to  the  general  law  stated  by  Max 
Midler :  the  missionary  religions  are  alive,  the  non- 
missionary  are  dead.  Mohammed,  God's  scourge,  and  his 
followers  overran  the  Holy  Land  itself,  the  fairest  pro- 
vinces of  Christendom  were  lost,  and  those  hallowed 
centres  of  Christianity — Antioch,  Alexandria,  Carthage — 
fell  under  the  Saracen  power.  Even  in  Europe,  the 
Crescent  replaced  the  Cross.  Spain  w^as  for  centuries 
under  the  heel  of  the  Moor,  and  by  the  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople in  1453  Mohammedanism  became  entrenched  in  the 
very  headquarters  of  the  Eastern  Church.  In  Persia,  India, 
and  in  Farthest  China,  where,  through  the  influence  of  the 
Nestorian  Church,  great  districts  acknowledged  Christ, 
there  had  been  disastrous  retreat,  and  in  Africa  Christianity 
was  then  represented  only  by  the  Coptic  Church  of  Egypt 
and  its  ally  in  Abyssinia.  The  outlook  for  the  Church  of 
Christ  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  very  dark. 
Earnest  souls  were  loaded  with  a  great  w^eariness  and 
burden,  almost  to  the  point  of  desjjair.  "  Asia  and  Africa 
have  no  Gospel,"  said  Luther  on  one  occasion  ;  "  another 
hundred  years  and  all  will  be  over ;  God's  Word  will  dis- 
appear for  want  of  any  to  preach  it." 

Occasional  gleams  of  brightest  light  had  illumined  the 
four  or  five  dark  centuries  before  the  Reformation,  during 


8  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

which  the  ecclesiastical  organisation  of  the  Church  eclipsed 
its  missionary  functions  and  its  leaders  were  priests  rather 
than  missionaries.  The  Crusaders  represented,  often  in 
very  carnal  fashion  it  may  be,  the  missionary  spirit  of  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  and,  though  eventually 
unsuccessful  in  their  avowed  object,  they  for  a  time  re- 
established a  Christian  kingdom  in  Palestine,  checked  the 
Mohammedan  advance,  and  brought  Europe  into  close 
touch  with  non- Christian  lands.  Individuals  appeared 
who  were  fired  with  missionary  enthusiasm,  like  Francis 
of  Assisi  (1182-1226),  himseK  a  missionary  to  the  Turks 
and  the  founder  of  the  Franciscan  Order,  which  produced 
noted  missionaries,  and  none  greater  than  Raymond  Lull 
(1236-1315),  the  martyr  missionary  to  the  Mohammedans. 
Protests  against  the  abuses  and  evangelical  deadness  of  the 
Church  were  boldly  made  by  the  Albigenses  and  Waldenses 
of  Southern  Europe,  Wyclif  and  his  Lollards  in  England, 
Hus  and  Jerome  in  Bohemia,  Savonarola  in  Italy.  Besides 
those  "Reformers  before  the  Reformation,"  many  other 
indirect  influences  were  working  towards  a  revolution. 
The  fall  of  Constantinople  proved  not  only  a  calamity,  but 
also  a  blessing  in  spreading  that  Greek  language  and 
literature  Avhich  gave  a  powerful  impetus  to  the  revival  of 
learning  in  the  West.  The  invention  of  printing  led  to  the 
dissemination  of  the  Bible,  a  Latin  translation  of  which 
was  its  first  fruits  in  1450.  The  mariner's  compass,  which 
"  untied  the  bond  which  held  sailors  to  the  coast,"  led  to 
the  discovery  of  America  and  the  reopening  of  the  route  to 
India,  and  awakened  men's  curiosity  and  enterprise.  In 
these  ways,  among  others,  the  "fulness  of  time  "  had  come 
for  Luther  and  Calvin  and  Zwingli  to  lead  in  the  great 
struggle,  which  resulted  in  Christian  Europe  being  divided 
roughly  into  three  great  camps.  The  eastern  portion 
(except  what  was  Mohammedan)  continued  its  adherence 
to  the  Greek  Church,  and  of  the  remainder  the  southern 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  ITS  INFLUENCE  9 

countries  adhered  to  Eome,  while  the  northern  adopted  the 
Protestant  faith — a  division  practically  maintained  to  the 
present  day,  showing  that  there  is,  in  these  great  provi- 
dential movements,  a  time  and  tide,  which  do  not  readily 
recur  if  advantage  be  not  taken  when  offered. 

It  has  often  been  noted  as  a  paradox  that  the  spiritual 
life  awakened  in  the  Keformation  period  was  not  followed 
by  aggressive  missionary  work  in  non- Christian  lands, 
a  fact  all  the  more  strange  in  view  of  the  open  doors 
among  Mohammedans.  "  This  missionary  neglect  of  the 
Keformed  Church,"  says  Professor  Cowan,  "is  a  blot 
upon  her  early  history,  and  helped  to  arrest  her  progress." 
The  leaders  showed  an  ignorance 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  its  relation  to  the  world 
as  a  whole.  Erasmus,  "  the  i^ro- 
phet  of  the  Reformation,"  was  in- 
deed a  notable  exception.  Parts 
of  his  treatise  On  the  Art  of 
Preaching  may  still  be  studied  to 
advantage  as  a  missionary  guide. 
To  those  who  were  grieved  over  Erasmus. 

the  decay  of  the  Christian  religion  he  gave  the  advice  that 
they  should  follow  the  example  of  the  early  Church  leaders, 
and  beseech  Christ  to  send  "  sowers  to  scatter  the  seed  " 
in  the  many  unevangelised  lands.  There  are,  no  doubt, 
gleams  of  right  theory  in  the  writings  of  the  others,  but  as 
the  Lutheran  champion  of  missions,  Warneck,  writing  of 
Luther,  says,  "  the  mission  to  the  heathen  world  had  no 
interest  for  him  or  his  fellow-labourers."  The  Church  to 
them  was  not  a  missionary  body,  but  (as  defined  in  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  drawn  up  by  Melanchthon  for  the  German 
Protestants)  "an  assembly  of  saints  in  which  the  Gospel  is 
truly  taught  and  the  sacraments  are  duly  administered." 

Many  reasons  have  been  suggested  to  account  for  this 


10  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

attitude,  and  probably  the  most  weighty  is  that  the 
Reformation  was  in  reality  a  great  home  mission  to 
Christendom.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  protest  against  the 
errors,  abuses,  and  heathen  practices  within  a  degenerate 
Church,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  task,  with  the  long 
struggle  against  papal  and  imperial  forces  was  such  as  to 
monopolise  the  Reformers'  attention  and  strain  their 
resources  to  the  utmost.  Their  vision  of  the  "regions 
beyond,"  and  their  duty  towards  them,  were,  moreover, 
obscured  by  a  defective  doctrine  of  the  "  last  things." 
"To  Luther,"  again  to  quote  Warneck,  "the  last  day  was 
at  hand.  He  expected  no  further  extension  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  among  non  -  Christian  peoples.  .  .  .  The 
Gentile  peoples  who  had  already  entered  the  Christian 
Church  were  the  total  conclusive  result  of  a  mission 
work  that  was  now  ended."  Moreover,  to  a  large  extent 
"  the  open  doors "  of  heathendom  were  awanting,  and 
therefore  "the  open  eyes."  Unlike  the  Roman  Church, 
which  was  extended  by  the  great  discoveries  and  colonial 
possessions  of  her  faithful  subjects,  Spain  and  Portugal, 
the  Reformed  Church  was  not  till  a  later  date  brought 
into  touch  with  the  heathen  peoples  of  the  newly-opened 
lands  in  America  and  the  East. 

Yet,  withal,  the  Reformation  was  all-important  for  the 
ultimate  evangelisation  of  the  world.  It  was,  asserts  Mr. 
Benjamin  Kidd,^  "the  real  motive  force  behind  the  whole 
onward  movement  with  which  our  age  is  identified."  The 
period  was  one  of  the  world's  seed-times,  and  the  mission- 
ary harvest,  though  late,  has  been  bountiful.  The  Reforma- 
tion broke  the  petrifying  power  of  the  mere  ecclesiastic ; 
it  declared  the  freedom  and  fulness  of  salvation,  and 
recalled  the  Church  to  the  more  primitive  and  pure  doctrine 
of  the  Nicene  Creed  ;  it  asserted  the  divine  liberty  of 
^  Social  Evolution. 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  ITS  INFLUENCE 


11 


conscience  and  of  individual  eifort.  By  maintaining  the 
indefeasible  right  of  every  man  to  read  the  Bible  in  his 
mother-tongue  it  made  it  possible  for  each  to  come  face 
to  face  with  the  missionary  purposes  and  claims  of  Christ, 
and  so  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present  world-wide 
missions,  whose  ideal  propagation  is  only  realised  when 
the  Man  of  God  goes  forth  armed  with  the  Word  of  God. 
"An  era  of  missions,"  wrote  the  late  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon, 
"  were  impossible  except  there  were  a  previous  dispensa- 
tion of  Bible  translation.  Without  the  Scriptures  Chris- 
tianity may  be  imposed  upon  a  nation,  but  it  cannot  be 
implanted  in  a  nation."  Nor  must  we  forget  the  reflex 
influence  of  the  Reformation  upon  the  life  and  missionary 
activity  of  the  Ptoman  Church,  whose  great  Jesuit  Order 
was  founded  by  Ignatius  Loyola  and  his  companions  during 
the  heat  of  the  Reformation  conflict.  "  In  the  course  of  a 
single  generation,"  wrote  Macaulay,  "  the  whole  spirit  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  underwent  a  change." 


I°^°*_TK^ J^CA V EgjOFjH £JLR E E.  W E R E   F 0 RIT NE  N E A kl IN g'O F  TM £^NATION^ 


The  107  Languages  and  Dialects  into  which  the  whole  Bible  has  been 
TRANSLATED.  (From  the  Reporter  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society 
which  has  published  no  less  than  85  of  the  versions.) 

In  addition,  the  New  Testament  has  been  translated  into  101  languages 
or  dialects,  and  portions  of  the  Bible  into  192  more,  making  a  grand  total 
of  400. 


Mount  of  Olives  and  Gethsemane. 


CHAPTER   III 


BEGINNING    AT    JERUSALEM 


In  the  main  the  missionary  expansion  of  the  Church  will 
be  best  treated  under  well-defined  geographical  divisions, 
but  we  have  to  disregard  geography  Avhen  we  deal  with 
missions  to  the  people  to  whom  were  committed  the 
oracles  of  God,  "and  of  whom,  as  concerning  the  flesh, 
Christ  came."  In  almost  every  country  are  the  Jews 
found.  They  are  perhaps  more  numerous  now  than  at 
any  jjrevious  time,  and  yet  they  do  not  exceed  ten 
millions^  in  all,  or  about  a  fourth  of  the  population  of 

^  Estimate  of  the  Jewish  race  in  1891  (according  to  the  Jewish 
Year-Book  for  1896-97),  9,084,937;  distribnted  thns  :— Europe, 
7,701,298  (of  whom  in  Russia,  4,500,000  ;  Austro-Hungary,  1,860,106  ; 
Germany,  567,884  ;  Roumania,  300,000  ;  Turkey,  120,000  ;  Great 
Britain,  101,189;  other  States,  252,119);  Asia,  260,000;  Africa, 
336,500  ;  America,  772,000  ;  Austrahasia,  15,139.  Those  numbers 
include  pseudo-Jews,  i.e.  Jews  by  faith  and  not  by  race,  viz.  :  Black 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  13 

the  British  Isles.  Even  m  our  Lord's  day  but  a  small 
proportion  of  the  nation  was  resident  in  the  Holy  Land. 
The  numbers  were  greatly  reduced  at  the  fall  of  Jerusalem 
and  by  subsequent  calamities,  and  it  is  only  in  these  latter 
days  (since  1870)  that  there  has  been  any  considerable 
proportion  of  Jews  in  the  country.  The  Church  of  Scot- 
land's deputation  of  1839,  after  careful  inquiry,  estimated 
the  Jews  of  Palestine  as  from  eight  to  twelve  thousand, 
not  one  of  whom,  except  at  the  colony  of  Bukiya  in  Galilee, 
was  engaged  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  most  of  them 
subsisting  on  the  haluka  or  dole  from  the  annual  gifts  of 
European  synagogues.  An  authority  gave  the  number  in 
1880  as  twenty-five  thousand.  Now  it  is  reckoned  as  over 
fifty  thousand  (some  put  it  at  seventy  thousand),  perhaps 
two  thousand  of  whom  were  brought  to  Palestine  in  connec- 
tion with  the  agricultural  colonies,  mainly  of  Russian  and 
Roumanian  Jews,  which  Jewish  philanthropists  have  estab- 
lished for  their  persecuted  brethren.  But  the  Land  of 
Promise  is  still  to  a  great  extent  desolate.  In  a  recent 
census  not  a  single  Jew  was  found  at  Nazareth,  and  there 
were  only  three  at  Bethlehem.^  "  Where  their  God  hath 
dwelt,  the  godless  dwell,"  and  among  all  Gentile  nations  are 
now  scattered  the  "  tribes  of  the  wandering  foot  and  weary 
breast."  Despite  their  dispersion,  and  that,  too,  chiefly  in 
Christian  lands  (so  much  so  that  they  may  be  called  a 
European  or  even  a  Polish  nation),  they  still  remain  a 
peculiar  and  a  separate  peo^jle — the  bush  burning,  yet  not 
consumed — witnessing  to  the  truth  of  those  Scriptural 
promises  of  whose  compjlete  fulfilment  they  are  an  earnest. 
As  Crabbe  sings — 

Jews  in  Cochin,  Malabar  ;  Karaites,  "Scripturists,"  in  Crimea  (partly 
of  Tartar  origin),  and  Loango  Jews  in  Africa  (negroes). 

\_Xote, — Dr.  Dalnian  estimates  the  Falashas  of  Abyssinia  —  also 
pseudo-Jews — at  200,000,  whereas  only  50,000  are  included  in  the 
above  estimate  for  Africa.] 

^  Nazareth  and  Bethlehem  are  practically  Christian  towns. 


14 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


Amazing  race  !  deprived  of  land  and  laws, 
A  general  language  and  a  public  cause  ; 

A  people  still  whose  common  ties  are  gone  ; 
Who,  mixed  ^^•ith  every  race,  are  lost  in  none. 


Origen  in  his  day  wrote  of  them  :  "  Is  it  not  a  moving 
miracle  ?  Is  it  not  1 50  years  since  Jerusalem  was  de- 
stroyed, and  the  Jews  wander  all  over  the  earth  to  fulfil 
the  prophecies  ? "  AVell,  then,  might  their  modern  historian 
Dean  Milman  say  that  "their  perplexity,  their  national 

immortality,  is  at  once  the 
most  curious  problem  to 
the  political  inquirer,  to 
the  religious  man  a  subject 
of  profound  and  awful  ad- 
miration." Frederick  the 
Great  is  reported  to  have 
asked  of  Ziethen,  one  of 
his  generals :  "  Give  us  a 
good  argument  to  prove 
Christianity,  but  some- 
thing short  and  convinc- 
ing." "The  Jews,  your 
Majesty,"  was  the  suggestive 
reply. 

The  remarkable  legend 
of  the  Wandering  Jew  is 
significant  in  the  light  of 
Jewish  history.  It  runs  that  Ahasuerus,  a  shoemaker, 
stood  in  his  doorway  as  the  Saviour  was  being  dragged 
up  Calvary.  Jesus,  bowed  under  the  weight  of  the  cross, 
tried  to  rest,  but  Ahasuerus,  in  his  zeal  and  rage,  drove 
Him  forward,  and  our  Lord,  in  obeying,  uttered  the 
fateful  words,  "  I  shall  stand  and  rest,  but  thou  shalt 
go  till  the  last  day " ;  or,  according  to  another  version, 


The  Wandering  Jew.    (After  Dore.) 
From  The  Jcv.s,  by  Hosmer. 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  15 

"I  am  going,  and  you  shall  wait  till  I  return."  After 
the  Crucifixion  Ahasuerus  could  not  return  home  to 
his  wife  and  children,  but  went  forth  a  mournful  pilgrim 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  throughout  the  ages,  ever 
haunted  by  the  tragedy  of  the  Cross.  "  We  shall,"  says 
Professor  Hosmer,  "  best  interpret  the  myth  if  we  under- 
stand the  Wandering  Jew  to  be  the  Hebrew  race  typified, 
its  deathless  course,  its  transgression,  its  centuries  of  ex- 
piating agony — in  this  way  made  for  us  concrete  and 
vivid."  During  the  Christian  centuries  the  Jews  have 
indeed  suffered.  The  Crusaders,  in  their  march  through 
Germany  to  rescue  from  the  infidel  the  tomb  of  Him  above 
whose  cross  was  the  superscription  "  King  of  the  Jews," 
"left  a  trail  of  Jewish  blood  behind  them";  and  the  cry 
"  Hep  !  hep ! "  doubtfully  derived  by  some  authorities 
from  the  initials  of  Hierosolyma  est  percUta,  "Jerusalem 
is  fallen,"  has  often  since  summoned  the  persecuting  rabble 
to  a  murderous  attack.  Few  of  the  nations  of  Europe  can 
plead  not  guilty  to  the  charge  of  cruelty,  though  Spain 
has  had  in  this  an  unenviable  notoriety.  "  Emigration  or 
baptism"  was  the  alternative  given  the  Jews  in  Spain 
in  the  fifteenth  century;  thousands  of  secret  followers 
of  the  faith  were  killed,  and  at  the  time  the  Spanish 
Columbus  was  discovering  America  200,000  Jews  were 
driven  from  the  Peninsula  to  seek  shelter  everywhere  on 
the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  Longfellow  has  thus 
expressed  the  unhappy  condition  of  the  Jews  : — 

They  lived  in  narrow  streets  and  lanes  obscure, 
Ghetto  and  Judenstrass,  in  mirk  and  mire  ; 

Taught  in  the  school  of  patience  to  endure 
The  life  of  anguish  and  the  death  of  fire. 

Such  treatment  was  inconsistent  with  true  mission 
work  among  the  Jews,  and  it  is  therefore  not  strange  that 
the   Church  was  slow  to  acquiesce  in   the   Divine  order 


16  MISSIONARY  EXrANSION 

for  missions,  heginning  at  Jerusalem^  which  the  early 
apostles  obeyed.  The  first  disciples,  the  first  martyrs,  the 
first  missionaries  were  Jews.  All  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Luke  and  the 
author  of  Hebrews,  were  children  of  Israel.  To  the 
Hebrews  a  special  epistle  was  addressed,  and  James, 
the  Lord's  brother,  the  first,  according  to  Eusebius,  of 
fifteen  Jewish  bishops  of  Jerusalem,  wrote  his  letter  to  the 
twelve  tribes  of  the  Dispersion.     The  practice  of  St.  Paul, 


*#^^         '    m^' 

i 

tij^^'             imwE^'M 

^m 

1 

Jksus,  as  a  Boy,  in  thr  Tkmple. 
From  the.  Painting  hy  J.  M.  H.  llofiiian. 

the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  was  to  preach  "  to  the  Jew 
first " ;  and  in  those  closely-reasoned  chapters,  Romans  ix. 
to  xi.,  in  which  he  sets  forth  the  rejection  of  Israel  as  a 
nation,  he  gives  the  assurance  that  the  rejection  is  not  of 
all  Israel  any  more  than  for  all  time.  He  was  himself  a 
proof  that  "  there  is  a  remnant  according  to  the  election 
of  grace,"  and  that  "  blindness  in  part  has  happened  to 
Israel,  until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in,  and 
so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved."  His  "heart's  desire  and 
prayer  "  was  for  their  salvation. 

In  the  centuries  immediately  preceding  the  Ileforma- 
tion    many    distinguished    men    embraced    Christianity, 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  17 

either  from  conviction  or  compulsion,  but  although  the 
Popes  as  a  rule  protected  the  Jews,  little  of  real  worth 
could  be  accomplished  in  a  persecuting  age.  "If," 
wrote  Luther,  "the  aj^ostles  who  also  were  Jews,  had 
acted  towards  us,  the  heathen,  as  we,  the  heathen,  act 
towards  the  Jews,  never  a  heathen  would  have  become 
a  Christian."  "We  are  only  brothers-in-law,"  he  said 
at  another  time,  "they  are  blood  relations  and  brethren 
of  our  Lord."  But  his  sympathetic  interest  had  changed 
sadly  when  he  wrote  later,  "  Next  to  the  devil,  the 
Christian  has  no  more  malignant  or  bitter  enemy  than 
the  Jew."  Erasmus  had  truer  insight  than  his  con- 
temporaries, for  in  his  noble  treatise  On  the  Art  of 
Preaching  he  wrote,  "I  know  there  is  no  beast  so 
difficult  to  tame  as  the  stubborn  and  hard-hearted  Jew; 
but  nevertheless  he  can  be  brought  into  subjection  by 
kindness  and  love."  On  the  whole,  the  Reformation  did 
not  immediately  alter  the  disposition  of  the  Christian 
towards  the  Jew.  Indirectly,  however,  by  the  impetus 
given  to  the  careful  study  of  the  Scriptures,  it  had  a 
salutary  effect  on  the  people  and  the  clergy. 

In  1647  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  put  on  record  its  wish  for  "a  more  firm  con- 
sociation for  propagating  it  [the  Gospel]  to  those  who 
are  without,  especially  the  Jews,"  but  the  laudable 
aspiration  had  no  practical  outcome.  In  the  latter 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century  a  great  impulse  was 
given  to  missionary  work  by  Esdras  Edzard,  a  wealthy 
gentleman  of  Hamburg  who  devoted  his  life  and  means 
to  the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  and  succeeded  in  bring- 
ing some  to  Christ.  The  Pietist  revival  in  Germany 
had  its  natural  efifect,  and  we  are  told  that  in  1713  "the 
general  topic  of  conversation  and  discussion  of  the  present 
day  is  about  the  conversion  of  the  Jews," — a  wave  of 
interest  which  affected  London.     A  tract  for  the  Jews  by 

Z 


18  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

the  Rev.  John  Miiller,  translated  into  six  languages, — in- 
cluding English  by  the  Society  for  Propagating  Christian 
Knowledge  in  1734, — and  still  used  for  missionary  purposes, 
caused  a  sensation  in  different  lands,  and  had  as  one  result 
the  founding  at  Halle  in  1728  by  Callenberg,  a  pupil  of 
Francke,  of  the  Institutum  Judaicum,  with  the  threefold 
object  of  publishing,  caring  for  converts,  and  educating 
and  sending  out  evangelists.  Stephen  Schultz  was  the 
most  remarkable  of  a  long  series  of  missionaries  sent 
out  by  the  Institute  till  its  close  in  1792.  Count  Zin- 
zendorf  aroused  an  interest  in  the  Jews  among  the 
Moravians,  and  theirs  was  the  first  Church  as  a  church 
to  undertake  a  mission  to  them,  as  well  as  to  the 
heathen. 

Little  organised  work  was  attempted  in  England  till 
the  beginning  of  this  century.  C.  F.  Frey,  a  Christian 
Israelite,  was  one  of  three  students  of  Berlin  who  in  1801 
responded  to  the  call  of  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
and  was  by  them  destined  for  Africa.  While  in  London 
he  visited  his  fellow-Jews,  whom  he  found  in  such  a  state 
of  deadness  and  spiritual  bondage,  that  he  asked  his 
Directors  to  be  allowed  to  work  among  them.  This  they 
agreed  to,  and  in  1809  the  undenominational  "London 
Society  for  Promoting  Christianity  among  the  Jews  "  was 
formed  to  take  charge  of  the  work.  In  1815  the  Society 
came  exclusively  under  Church  of  England  auspices.  The 
main  promoter,  Lewis  Way,  a  clergyman  whose  time  and 
fortune  were  consecrated  to  the  interests  of  the  Jews,  had 
his  attention  first  arrested  when  admiring  some  fine  old 
oaks  in  a  Devonshire  park.  The  owner  of  the  park,  he 
was  told,  had  lately  died  and  left  an  "extraordinary  will," 
with  the  provision  that  those  trees  should  not  be  cut  down 
*'  till  Israel  returns  and  is  restored  to  the  Land  of  Promise," 
— still  more  extraordinary  to  us  in  the  light  of  intervening 
vents.     A  notable  occurrence  was  the  laying  of  the  founda- 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM 


19 


Bishop  Alexander. 


tion  stone  of  the  Hebrew  Episcopal  chapel  and  schools  in 
London  in  1813  by  Queen  Victoria's  father,  the  patron  of 
the  Society  ;  and  still  more  notable  was  the  consecration  in 
1847  of  a  convert,   Michael  Solomon  Alexander,  as  the 

first    Protestant    Bishop    of  

Jerusalem,  regarding  whom 
the  Chevalier  Bunsen  wrote 
in  his  diary :  "  The  suc- 
cessor of  St.  James  will  em- 
bark in  October.  He  is  by 
race  an  Israelite ;  born  a 
Prussian  in  Breslau  ;  in  con- 
fession belonging  to  the 
Church  of  England  ;  ripened 
(by  hard  work)  in  Ireland ; 
twenty  years  Professor  of 
Hebrew  and  Arabic  in  Eng- 
land. ...  So  the  beginning 
is  made,  please  God,  for  the  restoration  of  Israel."  The 
London  Society  is  still  the  leading  Society,  and  has  now, 
working  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  175  missionary 
agents  (and  wives),  of  whom  77  are  Christian  Jews. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  missionaries  to  the 
Jews  was  the  Rev.  Joseph  Wolff,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  the  son 
of  a  Bavarian  Kabbi,  and  baptized  by  a  Benedictine  monk 
in  1812.  He  was  taken  to  Rome  to  be  trained  as  a 
missionary,  but  was  suspected  of  heresy,  and  afterwards 
dismissed  as  incorrigible.  Coming  to  London,  he  joined 
the  Church  of  England,  and,  through  the  influence  of 
Charles  Simeon  and  others,  studied  at  Cambridge  with 
a  view  to  the  Jewish  Mission  field.  Wolff,  styled  the 
Protestant  Xavier,  preached  Jesus  and  distributed  Scrip- 
tures in  many  countries,  including  Assyria,  India,  and 
the  barbarous  States  of  Central  Asia.  In  the  course  of 
his  travels  he  sufiered  many  hardships,  was  persecuted. 


20  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

imprisoned,  and  even  sold  as  a  slave ;  and  on  one  occasion, 
at  Bokhara,  only  escaped  while  lying  under  sentence  of 
death.  For  many  years  before  his  death,  in  1862,  he 
was  Rector  of  a  Somersetshire  parish,  and  left  a  son,  Sir 
Henry  Drummond  Wolff,  the  well-known  diplomatist. 

There  are  many  other  English  agencies  in  addition  to 
the  London  Society.  The  British  Society  for  the  Pro- 
pagation of  the  Gospel  among  the  Jews  (founded  in  1842 
by  Ridley  Herschell,  a  Christian  Israelite,  the  father  of 
the  distinguished  Lord  Chancellor)  carries  on  an  extensive 
work  at  home  and  abroad,  and  its  Medical  Mission, 
Home  for  Aged  Christian  Israelites,  and  Temporal  Relief 
Fund,  have  been  blessed  to  the  London  Jews.  There 
is  the  Rosenthal  Mission  of  London  under  Episcopal 
auspices.  The  English  Presbyterian  Church^  the  London 
City  Mission,  the  Rev.  John  Wilkinson's  Mildmay  Mission 
to  the  Jews,  the  Barbican  Mission,  and  the  Revs.  David 
Baron  and  C.  A.  Schonberger's  Hebrew  Chj^istian  Testimony 
to  Israel,  are  all  engaged  among  the  Jews  of  London. 
Mr.  Baron  also  makes  tours  in  the  great  Jewish  centres  of 
the  East,  and  Mr.  Wilkinson  has  undertaken  the  circula- 
tion of  Salkinson's  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  of 
which  over  200,000  copies  have  been  issued.  The  Church 
of  England  has  its  valuable  Parochial  Mission  to  the 
Jews  Fund,  to  aid  its  clergy  in  the  evangelisation  of  their 
Jewish  parishioners.  The  aim  of  the  Society  for  the  Relief 
of  Persecuted  Jews  (Syrian  Colonisation  Fund)  is  not 
directly  missionary,  but  its  purpose  is  to  give  the  Jews  a 
token  of  Christian  sympathy. 

In  Scotland,  too,  an  interest  in  the  Jews  followed  upon 
the  revival  of  religion  in  the  beginning  of  the  century ; 
and  Mr.  Wodrow,  a  Glasgow  merchant,  did  much  to 
increase  it  by  his  seasons  of  prayer  and  personal  efforts. 
The  General  Assembly  of  1838  resolved,  amidst  much 
^  Also  conducts  work  in  Morocco. 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  21 

enthusiasm,  to  send  a  deputation  "to  see  the  real  con- 
dition and  character  of  God's  ancient  people,  and  to 
observe  whatever  might  contribute  to  interest  others  in 
the  cause."  The  deputation  consisted  of  Professor 
Black,  Dr.  Keith  (author  of  the  work  on  Prophecy), 
Mr.  (afterwards  Dr.)  Andrew  Bonar,  and  Mr.  R.  Murray 
M'Cheyne.  The  result  of  their  report  to  the  Assembly 
of  1840  was  a  unanimous  resolution  "that  the  cause 
of  Israel  should  from  that  time  form  one  of  the  great 
missionary  schemes  of  our  Church,"  and  the  "Narrative" 
of  their  journeys  became  a  standard  and  popular  mis- 
sionary book.  The  Church  having  entered  the  field,  it 
undertook  the  work  of  previously  existing  Jewish 
Societies  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow ;  and  its  Ladies' 
Association  for  the  Christian  Education  of  Jewesses  was 
early  formed. 

The  Church  of  Scotland's  first  stations  were  Jassy,  the 
capital  of  Moldavia,  and  Pesth,  the  capital  of  Hungary. 
The  story  of  the  foundation  of  the  latter  is  one  of  the 
romances  of  modern  missions.  An  accident  in  the  desert 
to  Professor  Black,  which  made  him  and  Dr.  Keith  un- 
expectedly return  by  Pesth ;  the  long  illness  of  Dr. 
Keith,  which  kept  him  there  against  his  will ;  the  answer 
thus  given  to  the  seven  years'  agonising  in  prayer  of 
the  Archduchess  Maria  Dorothea,  the  Viceroy's  Protestant 
wife,  for  a  revival  of  spiritual  religion  in  Hungary ;  these 
and  other  circumstances  led  to  this  unlooked-for  opening 
at  the  seat  of  an  intolerant  Roman  Catholic  Government. 
"  llabbi "  Duncan,  afterwards  the  distinguished  Professor 
of  Hebrew  in  the  New  College,  Edinburgh,  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  work,  and  exercised  a  wonderful 
influence  during  his  short  stay  in  Pesth.  There  were 
notable  converts,  among  them  one  of  the  most  honoured 
Jews  of  the  city,  or  indeed  of  Hungary,  Israel  Saphir, 
with  his  young   son  Adolph,  who   became    "mighty   in 


22 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


the  Scriptures"  and  a  distinguished  London  preacher. 
Israel  had  a  hard  struggle  before  he  was  persuaded  that 
the  Jews  had  crucified  the  Messiah,  but,  when  fully 
decided,  he  said  to  his  wife,  "  I  am 
convinced  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
and  though  I  see  nothing  but  starva- 
tion staring  us  in  the  face,  I  must 
go  and  confess  it."  And  full  many 
a  testing  time  he  had  to  prove  his 
faith. 

The  Church  of  Scotland's  six 
missionaries  joined  the  Free  Church 
in  1843,  and  continued  their  work 
under  its  auspices.     In  the  follow- 


Rev.  Dr.  Adolph  Saphir. 
From  Memoir  by  Rev.  GaA'in 
Carlyle,   M.A.,   Editor    of 
The  Mission  World 

(Revell). 


ing  year  arrangements  were  made 


by  the  Church  of  Scotland  for 
new  work  in  Cochin,  on  the  south- 
west coast  of  India,  and  other  stations  were  speedily  added. 
In  1861  two  missionaries,  Messrs.  Staiger  and  Brandeis, 
began  a  most  hopeful  Avork  in  Abyssinia,  but  political 
troubles  arose,  and  they,  with  the  agents  of  the  London 
Society,  were  put  in  chains,  and  were  only  set  at  liberty 
when  General  Napier  captured  Magdala  in  1868.  The 
Church's  present  stations  are  in  the  Levant  and  at  Glasgow. 
The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  abandoned  Jassy  and  Pesth 
on  account  of  the  political  commotion  on  the  Continent  in 
1848.  From  the  former,  the  pioneer  Rev.  Daniel  Edward, 
who  lately  died  after  fifty-four  years'  work,  went  to  Breslau. 
The  Pesth  mission  was,  however,  reoccupied.  In  addi- 
tion to  various  places  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  including 
Palestine,  the  Free  Church  carries  on  schools  in  the 
Bombay  Presidency  for  the  " Beni-Israel,"  "Children 
of  Israel,"  whose  traditions  affirm  that  they  are  the 
descendants  of  Jews  from  Yemen  shipwrecked  1200 
years  ago.     The  Preshyterian  Church  in  Ireland  has  been 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM 


23 


distinguished  for  its  zeal  for  Jewish  Missions  since  it 
established  its  first  station  at  Damascus  in  1842,  which 
station  has  since  then  exercised  an  increasing  influence 
over  a  wide  area.  Its  first  missionary,  Mr.  Graham,  was 
murdered  during  a  fanatical  rising  in  1860.  There  is  an 
Edinburgh  Society  for  Promoting  the  GosjkI  among  Foreign 
Jews,  and  Dr.  Andrew  Bonar's  lifelong  interest  in  the  Jews 
has  been  recognised  by  a  Memorial  Mission  in  Glasgoiv^ 
under  the  Glasgow  United  Evan- 
gelistic Association. 

Efforts  for  the  Jews  are  also 
made  by  Christians  in  Switzer- 
land, France,  Holland,  Scandi- 
navia, and  Russia.  In  Germany 
there  are  four  different  Societies 
working  for  the  evangelisation  of 
the  Israelites  within  the  Empire. 
The  chief  of  these  are  (1)  the 
Berlin  Society,  which  was  founded 
in  1822,  at  the  instance  of  Lewis 
Way  and  Professor  Tholuck,  re- 
ceiving an  annual  collection  from 
all  congregations  of  the  Evangelical 
State  Church  of  Prussia,  and  (2)  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Central  Association,  which  now  represents  mainly  Societies 
in  Saxony,  Bavaria,  Hanover,  and  Mecklenburg.  The 
late  eminent  scholar.  Professor  Delitzsch,  who  was  the  chief 
founder  of  the  Central  Association,  has  produced  the 
standard  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  Hebrew, 
which  has  perhaps  proved  the  most  successful  of  all  mis- 
sionary agencies  among  the  Jews.  Lord  Beaconsfield,  him- 
self a  Jewish  proselyte,  wrote  that  "  the  Jews  will  accept 
the  whole  of  their  religion,  instead  of  only  the  half  of  it,  as 
they  gradually  grow  more  familiar  with  the  true  history 
and  character  of  the  New  Testament."     One  great  object 


From   The  Expositor  (Hodder 
and  ytoughton). 


24  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

of  the  Jewish  missionary  is  to  show  how  the  Old  Testament 
has  its  fulfihnent  in  the  New  Testament,  and  so  it  is 
essential  that  he  be  well  versed  in  Hebrew  learning.  From 
this  point  of  view  nothing  could  be  more  important  than 
the  formation  at  German  Universities  of  the  Instituta 
Jiulaica,  suggested  by  the  famous  Callenberg  Institute. 
The  Berlin  Institute  is  under  Professor  Strack,  and  that  at 
Leipsic  (bearing  the  honoured  name  of  Delitzsch)  under 
Professor  Dalman.  The  former  is  an  association  of  students 
which  aims  primarily  at  instruction,  and  seeks  to  make  its 
members  better  acquainted  with  Judaism  and  the  best 
methods  of  mission  work  among  the  Jews,  while  the  latter 
is  a  college  for  training  Jewish  missionaries. 

The  study  of  the  New  Testament  led  to  significant 
Jewish  Christian  movements  in  South  Russia  and 
Hungary,  which  took  place  independently  of  each  other 
and  of  direct  Christian  influence.  They  resulted  from 
the  conviction  that  the  New  Testament  development  was 
the  legitimate  and  actual  outcome  of  the  Old.  The  move- 
ment in  South  Russia  began  under  Joseph  Rabinowitz, 
a  learned  and  influential  Je^dsh  lawyer  of  Kishinev, 
Bessarabia,  and  an  ardent  labourer  for  the  welfare  of 
his  people.  As  he  pondered  over  the  moral  and  material 
condition  of  Russian  Jews,  he  became  convinced  that 
it  was  a  spiritual  regeneration  they  needed.  He  visited 
Palestine  with  a  view  to  helping  forward  their  return 
to  the  Holy  Land,  and  while  standing  upon  the  Mount 
of  Olives  he  was  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  re- 
generation could  only  come  through  the  spirit  of  Jesus. 
"The  key  to  the  Holy  Land  lies  in  the  Hand  of  our 
Brother  Jesus."  The  four  wheels  of  Hebrew  history, 
says  Rabinowitz  in  a  parable,  may  be  said  to  be  Abraham, 
Moses,  David,  and  Jesus.  Those  are  foolish  people  who, 
driving  in  a  four-wheeled  carriage,  have  lost  a  wheel  and, 
finding  the  car  move  heavily  along,  run  forward  to  search 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  25 

for  it.  This  is  the  mistake  of  the  Jews,  who  have  for 
centuries  failed  to  find  their  fourth  wheel  because  they 
have  been  looking  in  front  instead  of  behind.  "Thank 
God,"  exclaims  he,  "  the  sons  of  the  New  Covenant  have 
found  the  supreme  wheel — Jesus  !  "  Rabinowitz  himself 
was  baptized,  and  some  of  his  followers  have  been  re- 
ceived into  the  Greek  and  Lutheran  Churches.  The  move- 
ment has  not  in  respect  of  numbers  succeeded  to  the 
extent  of  which  it  at  one  time  gave  promise,  probably 
because  of  the  danger  of  avowing  any  corporate  unity 
under  the  despotism  of  the  Russian  Empire.  Lichtenstein 
of  Tapio  Szele,  Hungary,  while  still  ministering  as  a  Rabbi, 
declared  his  devotion  to  Christ,  and  it  is  a  remarkable 
sign  of  the  times,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  the  person 
of  Christ  is  ever  pressing  upon  Judaism,  that  this  was 
tolerated  by  his  community.  The  Jews,  however,  ruined 
both  him  and  his  community  financially,  and  thus  forced 
him  to  leave  Tapio  Szele.  He  has  accepted  the  divinity 
of  Christ,  and  having  now  been  cast  out  by  his  people, 
tries  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  his  brethren  by  tracts  and 
correspondence. 

In  the  United  States  the  Society  for  Ameliorating  the 
Condition  of  the  Jews  was  founded  in  1820,  and  C.  F.  Frey, 
the  pioneer  missionary  of  the  London  Society,  was  its 
worker  in  New  York.  Tlie  Episcopalians,  Methodists,  Pres- 
byterians, and  Lutherans  are  greatly  interested.  Many  mis- 
sionary centres  exist.  Among  the  most  active  are  the 
Hope  Mission  of  the  Rev.  A.  Gabelein  to  the  New  York 
Jews,  the  New  York  City  Mission^  and  the  Zion  Associa- 
tion (Lutheran)  of  Minneapolis.  There  are  also  missions  at 
Chicago  (Methodist  and  Lutheran),  at  Philadelphia,  and 
other  places.  Mission  work  is  also  carried  on  in  Canada. 
A  converted  Jew,  the  Rev.  Ibrahim  Solomon,  is  a  Presiding 
Elder  of  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission  in 
India. 


26  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

It  is  estimated  that  there  are  now  over  50  Protestant 
Societies,  with  an  income  of  .£100,000,  employing  about 
400  missionaries  in  their  evangelistic,  medical,  educational, 
and  philanthropic  mission  work.  The  Bible  and  Tract 
Societies  add  their  valuable  co-operation  in  producing  and 
distributing  literature.  The  interest  in  God's  ancient 
people  has  increased  in  a  striking  manner,  as  shown  by  the 
contrast  with  20  societies  and  250  agents  in  1881.  But 
in  addition  to  these  special  agencies,  a  great  deal  of  work 
is  done  by  congregations  and  voluntary  workers  uncon- 
nected with  any  Society,  and  it  is  contended  that  such 
work  by  pastors  and  others  is  really  more  effective  than 
that  of  accredited  missionaries.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  Jewish  is  largely  a  Home  Mission  work,  in  which 
the  members  of  the  congregations  in  our  large  cities  can 
help  by  personal  effort,  and  it  is  surely  a  sign  of  spiritual 
poverty  when  it  is  neglected  or  handed  over  exclusively 
to  special  Societies.  Recognising  this  home  aspect  of  the 
Church's  responsibility,  the  London  Society  has  of  recent 
years  been  gradually  withdrawing  its  missionaries  from 
Protestant  Europe,  and  sending  them  to  countries  where 
the  Jews  are  not  surrounded  by  Gospel  privileges. 

To  give  any  accurate  statement  of  the  results  of  missions 
to  the  Jews  is  impossible.  That  large  numbers  have  been 
converted,  some  of  them  men  of  great  distinction,  is  un- 
doubted. The  majority  of  these  can  by  no  means  be 
claimed  for  the  missionaries  of  the  various  Societies,  but 
rather  as  due  to  the  general  Christian  environment, 
which  is  gradually  leavening  the  whole  mass  of  the  Jews, 
in  Protestant  countries  at  least.  Some  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Christian  Church  in  the  present  generation  have  been 
received  from  Judaism,  and  it  has  been  reckoned  that 
250  Jews,  or  sons  of  Jews,  are  ordained  clergymen  of  the 
Church  of  England,  with  more  than  double  that  number 
in  the  non-Episcopal  Churches  of  Britain  and  in  the  Con- 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  27 

tinental  and  American  Churches — a  fact  significant  of  the 
missionary  power  of  a  restored  Israel.  The  Hebrew 
Christian  Prayer  Union  has  630  members,  inclusive  of 
three  bishops  and  105  ordained  ministers.  The  fore- 
most men  in  philosophy,  theology,  j^oetry,  music,  and 
politics  have  been  proselytes  from  this  gifted  race,  men 
such  as  Neander,  Philippi  and  Caspari, 
Heine,  Beaconsfield,  Stahl,  and  Simson. 
the  first  President  of  the  German 
Parliament  and  of  the  highest  Court 
of  Justice.  One  of  the  first  living 
authorities.  Dr.  Dalman  of  Leipsic, 
states  that  "  if  all  those  who  have 
entered  the  Church  and  their  de- 
scendants had  remained  together  in- 
stead of   losing   themselves   among  the       I^lix  Mendelssohn. 

other  peoples,  as  there  is  an  unbelieving  ''^°"  "^  ^  ^^'"^^^  rroseiyte. 
Israel,  there  would  certainly  also  now  have  been  a  believing 
Israel  to  be  counted  by  millions,  and  no  one  would  have 
ventured  to  speak  of  the  uselessness  of  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  the  Jews."  In  the  first  three  quarters  of  this 
century  100,000  Jews,  according  to  Delitzsch,  are  thought 
to  have  embraced  Christianity,  and  we  have  exact  statistics 
to  show  that  in  Prussia  alone  1900  Jews  joined  the  State 
Church  from  1875  to  1888. 

Jewish  missions  are  carried  on  in  the  face  of  many 
difficulties.  The  missionary  meets  the  Jew  on  another 
platform  from  that  on  which  he  meets  the  heathen ; 
nay,  the  Jew  is  inclined  to  look  dow^n  upon  him  as  a 
backslider  from  2:)ure  monotheism.  The  convert  has 
often  to  suffer  as  much  as  the  highest  castes  of  India. 
The  persecution  of  the  past  centuries  has  left  behind  it  a 
hatred  of  Christianity  in  many  Jewish  minds.  Nor  is  the 
work  without  much  opi)Osition  from  within  the  Christian 
Church,  for  as  Lord  Shaftesbury  put  it,  "  the  veil  is  upon 


28  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

the  hearts  of  the  Gentiles,  in  respect  of  that  people,  nearly 
as  much  as  it  is  on  their  hearts  with  respect  to  the  Gospel." 
The  blood  of  both  Jew  and  Gentile  has  been  affected,  said 
Charles  Lamb,  by  "  centuries  of  injuries,  contempt,  and 
hate  on  the  one  side,  of  cloaked  revenge,  dissimulation, 
and  hate  on  the  other."  The  old  antagonism  may  show 
itself,  on  the  part  of  the  Gentile,  in  the  shape  of  a 
popular  prejudice  and  a  sneer  at  Jewish  Missions,  as  in 
Britain,  or  in  the  bitter  hatred  of  Berlin  and  Vienna,  or 
in  the  expulsion  from  the  country,  as  in  Russia. 

But  it  is  a  social  and  not  a  religious  antagonism.  The 
modern  anti-Semitic  movement  on  the  Continent  finds  its 
strength  in  the  fact  that  gifted  Jews,  freed  from  their  old 
political  disabilities,  are  finding  their  way  into  many  of 
the  higher  and  influential  positions  in  society.  Consider- 
ing their  numbers,  their  influence  vastly  preponderates, 
and  the  powder  of  Jewish  capitalists,  from  the  petty  money- 
lender to  the  financier  of  kingdoms,  is  so  enormous  as 
to  lend  reasonableness  to  the  complaint  of  the  German 
anti-Semites  that  "the  fruits  of  Christian  labour  are 
harvested  by  the  Jews  j  capital  is  concentrated  in  Jewish 
hands." 

The  social  and  political  emancipation  of  the  Jews  has 
other  besides  social  dangers.  In  Russia  much  of  the  per- 
secuting spirit  has,  no  doubt,  arisen  because  the  liquor 
traffic  is  largely  in  the  hands  of  Jews,  to  whom  the  land 
is  not  infrequently  hypothecated  for  debt  incurred  by 
drink.  Some  of  the  Jews,  too,  have  been  connected  with 
revolutionary  movements.  Not  a  few  writers  see  in  their 
control  of  the  press  of  Germany  one  of  the  most  powerful 
engines  for  diffusing  infidelity  among  the  masses  of  the 
people. 

The  revival  in  late  years  of  the  spirit  of  persecution 
has  led  to  a  remarkable  movement  of  the  Jews  towards 
Palestine,  w^hich  is  to  some  minds  of  remarkable  signi- 


BEGINNmG  AT  JERUSALEM 


29 


ficance.  As  the  "  Jewish  question  "  in  the  time  of  the 
Pliaraohs  was  settled  by  an  exodus  from  Egypt  and  a 
return  to  tlie  promised  land,  so  many  look  to  a  similar 
solution  for  the  troubles  of  the  Russian  and  other  exiles. 
Already  a  considerable  number  have  gone  back,  and  Jeru- 
salem, with  28,112  Jews  out  of 
a  total  population  of  45,420,  may 
be  again  called  a  Jewish  cit}. 
The  experience  of  the  agricultural 
settlements,  too,  seems  to  prove 
that  there  is  a  real  "  land  hunger" 
as  regards  the  Holy  Land.  A 
section  of  Jews  are  looking  hope- 
fully to  a  restored  kingdom.  The 
feeling  was  thus  expressed  by  the 
centenarian  Hebrew  philanthrop 
ist,  the  late  Sir  Moses  Montefiore : 
"  I  am  quite  certain  of  it ;  it  has 
been  my  constant  dream ;  Pales- 
tine must  belong  to  the  Jews, 
and  Jerusalem  is  destined  to 
become    the    seat    of    a    Jewish 

empire."  The  Christian  philanthropist.  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
thought  the  time  ripe  for  such  a  consummation,  for,  said  he, 
"  There  is  a  country  without  a  nation,  and  God  now,  in  His 
mercy,  directs  us  to  a  nation  without  a  country."  Jews, 
as  well  as  Christians,  have  argued  strenuously  that,  in  the 
event  of  the  decay  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  their  nation 
should  be  established  on  Mount  Zion,  where,  from  its  posi- 
tion between  the  three  great  continents,  as  well  as  from  the 
genius  of  its  people,  it  might  become  arbitrator  to  the 
nations  of  the  world.  Under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Herzl 
an  enthusiastic  conference  of  more  than  two  hundred 
"  Zionists  "  from  various  Hebrew  communities  was  held  at 
Basle  in  August  1897  to  discuss  this  subject  of  Palestine  for 


From  The  Cradle  of  Chi  I'^twnity, 
by   Rev.    D.  M.  Ross,  M.A. 


30 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


the  Jews.i  '\Yliile  it  may  be  unwise  to  read  dogmatically 
the  signs  of  the  times,  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  minds 
of  many  students  of  prophecy  are  filled  with  glad  expecta- 
tions at  the  thought  of  the  consummation,  when  Jerusalem 
being  no  longer 
"  trodden  down  of 
the  Gentiles,"  "the 
times  of  the  Gen- 
tiles" shall  be  ful- 
filled. 

From  many 
points  of  view  — 
from  the  Bible  pro- 
mises, and  from  the 
dangers  no  less 
than  the  encouragements  of  the  situation,  as  well  as 
on  the  ground  of  self-defence  —  the  present  call  to  win 
the  Jew  is  one  of  urgency,  and  there  is,  in  addition, 
the  undoubted  fact  that,  despite  the  rationalistic  and 
anti- Christian  attitude  of  a  large  number,  a  great 
change  is  coming  over  the  better  class  of  the  Jews. 
Instead  of  hating  the  name  of  Jesus,  the  enlightened  are 
more  inclined,  with  Disraeli,  to  see  in  Him  "  the  fairest 
flower  and  eternal  pride  of  the  Jewish  race,"  and  the 
question  ever  more  forces  itself  upon  them,  "Art  thou  He 
that  should  come  ? "     What  a  debt  we  Christians  owe  the 


The  Je\\«'  Waii.im,  1"i.a<  e  at  Jerusalem. 

From  Modern  Palestine,  by  the  Rev.  John 

Lamond,  B.D.  (Oliphant,  Anderson,  and  Ferrier). 


^  The  following  programme  was  adopted  by  the  Conference  : — 
The  aim  of  Zionism  is  to  create  for  the  Jewish  people  a  publicly, 

legally  assured  home  in  Palestine.      In  order  to  attain  this  object  the 

Congress  adopts  the  following  means  : 

1.  To  promote  the  settlement  in  Palestine  of  Jewish  agriculturists, 
handicraftsmen,  industrialists,  and  men  following  professions. 

2.  The   centralisation   of  the   entire   Jewish    people   by   means  of 
general  institutions  agreeably  to  the  laws  of  the  laud. 

3.  To  strengthen  Jewish  sentiments  and  national  self-consciousness. 

4.  To  obtain  the  sanction  of  Governments  to  the  carrying  out  of 
the  objects  of  Zionism. 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  31 

Jew  !  His  laws,  his  literature,  and  his  religion  we  have 
appropriated.  King  David  is  our  most  popular  poet,  and 
his  Psalms  have  strengthened  and  voiced  the  hearts  of 
our  people  in  their  times  of  greatest  struggle.  Yet  God's 
greatest  blessing  of  all  to  the  Gentiles  through  the 
Jews  is  still  future,  when  He  shall  again  visit  His  people 
in  mercy,  for,  as  St.  Paul  says,  "if  the  casting  away  of 
them  be  the  reconciling  of  the  world,  what  shall  the 
receivinoc  of  them  be  but  life  from  the  dead."  This  debt 
we  have  too  often  repaid  with  persecution.  What  though 
the  Jew  may  have  sought  our  hurt  too  ?  Did  not  He, 
who  is  their  and  our  Elder  Brother,  weep  over  Jerusalem, 
and  yearn  for  their  salvation  even  while  they  were 
clamouring  for  His  destruction  ?  And  He  it  is  who  has 
commanded  us  to  be  His  witnesses,  "  beginning  at  Jeru- 
salem." 


If  Thou  had'st  known.  '    13y  William  llulo,  U.S.A. 


Beh aim's  Globe,  1402. 
From  Columbus,  by  C.  R,  Markham  (G.  Philip  and  Son). 


CHAPTER    lY 


EARLIER    CALLS    THROUGH    EMPIRE 


^YHILE  the  command  of  Christ  to  make  disciples  of  the 
nations  is  without  condition  as  to  race  or  place,  the 
special  call  comes  to  the  individual  and  to  the  Church 
in  a  variety  of  ways.  What  open  doors  did  the  Eoman 
Empire  furnish  for  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel  in  the 
first  century !  On  the  day  of  Pentecost  many  nation- 
alities gathered  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  great  commercial 
city  of  Antioch  the  representatives  of  the  then  known  world 
mutely  laid  their  needs  before  the  early  Church.  On  the 
Asiatic  side  of  the  Bosphorus  the  Macedonian  call  came  to 
St.  Paul  from  the  opposite  European  shore,  and  his  Roman 
citizenship  led  him  to  the  world's  metropolis  itself,  and 
probably  even  to  the  western  gates  of  the  Empire. 
The  Fax  Romana^  too,  prepared  the  way  for  those  other 
early  missions  through  which  in  time  Europe  became 
Christian. 

Besponsibility  follows  opportunity.     The  mutual  rela- 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  33 

tionsliips  of  family  and  of  nation  have  been  for  the  Church 
and  its  members  as  the  pointing  of  the  finger  of  God. 
Often  indeed  the  Christian  missionary — ahead,  as  it  were, 
of  those  special  calls  —  has  gone  forth  under  the  con- 
straint of  the  love  of  Christ  for  the  whole  world ;  and  for 
many  a  land  the  first  event  in  its  true  history  has  been 
the  arrival  of  the  herald  of  the  Cross.  But  too  frequently 
the  Church  has  waited  till  her  way  was  made  patent 
through  national  and  commercial  interests,  and,  speaking 
generally,  the  first  attempts  of  the  Reformed  Church  were 
in  this  sense  parochial  or  national,  rather  than  world-wide 
in  their  conception. 

The  possession  of  colonies  has  exercised  a  powerful 
influence  for  the  missionary  expansion  of  the  Church.  We 
have  seen  that  the  great  colonising  powers  at  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  remained  Roman  Catholic.  An  adopted 
Spaniard,  Columbus,  discovered  the  New  World,  and 
Spain,  his  adopted  country,  fell  heir  to  it.  Vasco  da 
Gama,  a  Portuguese,  pioneered  the  route  to  India  in 
1498,  and  the  Roman  missionaries,  Xavier  prominent 
among  them,  followed  the  explorer  —  an  instance  of 
Livingstone's  famous  saying,  "Where  the  geographer 
ends,  the  missionary  begins."  Not  till  well  on  in  the 
seventeenth  century  were  the  Protestant  nations  brought 
closely  and  extensively  into  touch  with  the  heathen  world 
through  their  colonies,  and  not  till  then  did  their  mission- 
ary era  begin.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  a  notable 
change.  The  balance  of  power  in  Europe  has  shifted 
northward  and  westward,  largely  as  the  result  of  the 
long  struggle  for  the  possession  of  those  lands  laid  open 
by  Columbus  and  Da  Gama,  and  the  Saxon  and  Protestant 
nations  are  now  the  great  colonising  forces  of  the  world. 

Two  exceptions  to  the  missionary  barrenness  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  the  sixteenth  century  deserve  to  be 
noticed.     In  1555  the  King  of  France  sent  a  colony  to 

3 


34  MISSIOXARY  EXPAXSIOX 

Brazil,  in  the  hope  of  sharing  in  the  spoils  of  the  Xew 
"World.  The  enterprise  was  warmly  aided  by  Admiral  de 
Coligny,  who  welcomed  it  as  offering  an  asylum  for  his 
persecuted  and  proscribed  fellow-believers,  the  Huguenots. 
The  Governor  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Villegagnon,  was  then 
in  sympathy  with  the  Reformation,  and  appealed  to 
Coligny  and  Calvin  for  divines  to  plant  the  Reformed 
faith.  In  response  fourteen  men  left  Geneva  in  1556,  and 
they  were  joined  in  France  by 
Protestant  colonists.  From  the 
first  they  suffered  great  hardships, 
and  Villegagnon,  won  back  by 
the  Romanists,  became  their  per- 
secutor instead  of  their  protector. 
Some  of  them  he  caused  to  be  put 
to  death,  and  the  others  reached 
Europe  in  a  pitiable  condition 
after  the  terrible  sufferings  of 
a  tedious  voyage.  During  ten 
months'  stay  in  Brazil  the  mis- 
^■^^^^^'  sionaries,  in  their  intercourse  with 

the  natives,  seem  to  have  impressed  some,  but  no  lasting 
results  followed,  and  the  colony  itself  was  soon  afterwards 
destroyed  by  the  Portuguese.  Six  years  later  Coligny 
tried  to  establish  a  Huguenot  colony  in  Florida,  and  again 
in  Carolina,  with  equally  disastrous  results.  "  How- 
different,  be  it  said  in  passing,  would  the  world  now  be  if 
a  Huguenot  France  had  sprung  up  beyond  the  Atlantic  ! " 
The  other  attemjDt  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  made 
by  King  Gustavus  of  Sweden,  who  sent  a  missionary  to 
Lapland  in  1559  to  seek  the  conversion  of  his  still  pagan 
subjects  in  the  far  north  of  his  kingdom.  By  royal 
mandate  the  Lapps  were  ordered  to  assemble  at  a  certain 
period  to  pay  the  annual  tribute  and  receive  religious 
instruction.     The  Government  has  since  then  continued 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  35 

the  work,  schools  have  been  established,  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  books  provided,  and  the  Lapps  on  Swedish 
territory  are  now  nominally  Christians,  though  their  for- 
bidding land  and  their  migratory  habits  have  formed 
serious  obstacles  to  satisfactory  results. 


The  Dutch  Colonies 

The  rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic  on  its  escape  from  the 
yoke  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the 
attitude  of  the  Reformed  Church  to  missions,  for  in  the  long 
struggle  that  followed,  the  Dutch  got  possession  of  most 
of  the  Portuguese  world-wide  dependencies.  As  each 
colony  was  planted  it  became  not  only  a  Dutch  possession, 
but  also  a  district  under  the  ecclesiastical  rule  of  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church.  Missionaries,  or,  more  correctly  speak- 
ing, ministers,  were  sent  to  take  charge  of  the  religious 
affairs,  just  as  governors  were  sent  for  the  civil  and  political. 
As  a  rule  the  Dutch  in  their  methods  followed  too  much 
in  the  lines  of  their  Roman  Catholic  predecessors ;  yet  we 
must  admire  those  pioneer  efforts  to  meet  their  responsi- 
bilities for  the  natives  who  came  under  their  sway.  The 
religious  instruction  of  the  inhabitants  in  church  and 
school  was  undoubtedly  one  of  their  first  objects.  Hugo 
Grotius,  the  eminent  theologian  who  was  Swedish 
Ambassador  at  Paris,  wrote  his  celebrated  evidential 
treatise.  The  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion,  for  the  use 
of  the  Dutch  clergy  going  to  the  East,  and  Antonius 
Wallaeus,  a  Professor  in  the  University  of  Leyden,  founded 
in  1612  a  seminary  for  the  training  of  missionaries. 
The  Dutch  were,  at  least,  the  first  Protestant  power  to 
attempt  to  translate  the  missionary  duty  of  the  Church 
from  theory  into  practice. 

The  character  and  results  of  those  early  missions 
can  best  be  exemplified  by  the  experience  in  Ceylon,  in 


36  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

which  the  Portuguese  had  acquired  a  footing  as  early  as 
1518.  Franciscan  monks,  as  well  as  Xavier,  had  preached 
and  succeeded  in  gaining  many  converts.  In  1636  the 
King  of  Kandy  asked  the  help  of  the  Dutch  against  the 
Portuguese,  but  their  successful  intervention  only  resulted 
for  the  king  in  a  change  of  superiors.  The  Dutch  took 
possession  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Churches  among  the 
Tamil-speaking  Hindus  of  the  north  of  the  island,  and 
their  first  minister  arrived  in  1 642.  Large  numbers  became 
Protestants,  but  no  great  change  was  necessarily  involved, 
as  the  requirements  were  largely  external — the  repetition  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer  and  of  the  ten  commandments,  morning 
and  evening  prayer,  and  grace  before  and  after  meat.  The 
Buddhistic  Sinhalese  of  the  south  of  the  island  were  less 
responsive,  and  a  proclamation,  aimed  at  Buddhist  and 
Roman  Catholic  alike,  was  issued  ordaining  certain  dis- 
abilities for  those  who  would  not  join  the  Reformed 
Church  and  sign  the  Helvetic  Confession.  It  is  right  to 
add  that  those  local  rules  were  afterwards  condemned  by 
the  Classis  of  Amsterdam.  Still,  the  Dutch  attempted  a 
great  w^ork,  which,  had  it  not  been  vitiated  by  secular  inter- 
ference and  unspiritual  methods,  might  have  achieved  noble 
results.  Their  educational  system  was  based  on  liberal 
and  comprehensive  principles.  Seminaries  were  estab- 
lished for  training  native  preachers  and  teachers,  elementary 
education  was  both  free  and  compulsory,  and  at  the  close 
of  their  rule  in  Ceylon  there  were  85,000  scholars  in  their 
parish  schools.  The  New  Testament  they  translated  into 
Tamil  and  Sinhalese.  In  1722  as  many  as  424,392  Dutch 
native  Christians  in  Ceylon  were  reported,  but  their  state 
was  far  from  satisfactory.  Not  one  per  cent — it  is  even  said 
not  one-twentieth  per  cent, — were  communicants.  It  is 
therefore  not  surprising,  though  very  sad  to  learn,  that 
when  the  Dutch  were  superseded  by  the  British  in  1795, 
and  freedom  in  religious  matters  was  allowed,  there  was  a 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  E^NIPIRE 


great  falling  off.  The  number  of  Protestant  Christians 
was  returned  in  1801  as  342,000,  while  by  1803  they  had 
sunk  to  146,000,  and  Claudius  Buchanan  asserted  in  1806 
that  Reformed  Christianity  was  then  extinct.  Such  a  sad 
result  furnishes  a  valuable  lesson  and  utters  a  solemn 
warning  against  the  use  of  carnal  weapons  in  spreading 
the  Gospel,  and  against  trusting  more  to  the  admini- 
stration of  rites  and  the  repetition 
of  formulas  than  to  a  change  of 
heart. 

A  like  record  might  be  given  of 
the  work  in  the  Dutch  East  Indian 
Islands.  Java  is  said  to  have 
had  100,000  Christians  in  172K 
and  a  minister  writes  in  1718  of 
"ships  full  of  heathens"  coming 
for  baptism  to  Sumatra.  They 
had  a  most  painful  experience  in 
the  island  of  Formosa,  where  they 
had  established  themselves  at  Fort 
Zealandia  in  1624.  The  first  mis- 
sionary, the  pious  George  Can- 
didius,  arrived  in  1627.  Two 
Junius,  born  of  Scottish  parents  in  Rotterdam,  a  man  of 
superior  gifts  and  great  devotion,  was  appointed  to  assist 
him,  and  an  account  of  his  "missionary  success"  was 
published  in  1650  with  the  title,  "Of  the  Conversion  of 
5900  East  Indians  in  the  Isle  of  Formosa,  near  China,  to 
the  profession  of  the  true  God  in  Jesus  Christ."  When  the 
Ming  dynasty  of  China  was  supplanted  by  the  Manchus, 
the  powerful  Tartar  pirate  Koxinga  refused  allegiance  and 
attacked  Formosa  in  1661.  He  persecuted  the  native 
Christians  who  remained  firm,  cruelly  massacred  the  Dutch 
who  fell  into  his  hands,  and  forced  them  to  withdraw  in 
1662,  thus  putting  an  end  to  what  was  perhaps  the  most 


Rev.  lloxiERT  Junius. 
From  Campbell's  Missionary 
Success  in  Formosa  (Kegan 
Paul,     Trench,    Triibner, 
and  Co.,  Ltd.). 


years 


later     Robert 


38  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

satisfactory  of  those  earlier  Dutch  efforts.  No  trace  was 
left  behind  save  the  gospel  of  St.  Matthew  in  Formosan, 
republished  a  few  years  ago. 

The  Dutch  likewise  had  the  honour  of  being  the  first 
Protestants  to  attempt  the  evangelisation  of  India,  and  in 
1630  they  had  a  congregation  of  native  Christians  at 
Pulicat,  twenty -five  miles  north  of  Madras.  In  Brazil, 
which  they  had  succeeded  for  a  time  in  annexing,  they  also 
made  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  realise  their  missionary 
duty,  chiefly  through  a  German  prince,  Johann  Moritz  of 
Nassau-Siegen,  who  was  Governor  of  Pernambuco  in  1636. 
Schools  were  established,  a  Catechism  translated,  and  some 
Indians  baptized,  but  the  colony  was  one  of  short  duration. 


The  British  Colonies 
L  The  American  Continent 

"It  was  only  in  the  Elizabethan  age,"  says  Professor 
Seeley,  "  that  England  began  to  discover  her  vocation  to 
trade  and  to  the  dominion  of  the  sea,"  and  the  discovery 
made  her  realise — very  faintly  at  first — her  responsibility 
for  the  non- Christian  world  with  which  she  was  then 
brought  into  contact.  Through  the  discoveries  of 
Columbus  and  Da  Gama  the  Atlantic  began  to  supersede 
the  Mediterranean  as  the  world's  highway,  and  the  insular 
position  of  Britain  was  favourable  to  the  new  conditions. 
The  New  World  became  her  earliest  colonial  field  and  the 
Red  Indians  her  first  heathen  subjects. 

Martin  Frobisher  (1570),  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the 
great  Elizabethan  seamen,  in  his  search  for  a  north-west 
passage  to  India,  carried  a  chaplain,  "Maister  Wolfall,"  who 
left  home  and  a  good  living  with  the  desire  of  "  saving  souls 
and  reforming  infidels  to  Christianity,"  and  who  was  "  the 
first  priest  of  the  reformed  Church  of  England  to  minister 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE 


39 


on  American  shores."  Frobisher  also  took  three  Indians 
back  with  him  to  England.  In  1584  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
obtained  (by  letters  patent)  a  charter  to  found  an 
English  colony,  and  he  named  it  Virginia,  after  his  royal 
mistress.  Among  the  colonists  was  one  Thomas  Heriot 
or  Hariot,  an  eminent  scientist  and  philosopher,  who 
may  be  said  to  have  been  the  first  English  missionary 
to  America,  having  "many  times  in  every  towne"  to 
which  he  came  "  made  declaration  of  the  contents  of  the 
Bible"  and  of  the  "chiefe 
points  of  religion "  to  the 
natives  according  as  he  "was 
able."  The  colony  failed,  but 
Manteo,  a  native  who  accom- 
panied the  colonists  to  Eng- 
land, was  baptized  on  13th 
August  1587,  in  the  island  of 
Ivoanoake  (off  N.  Carolina),  of 
which  he  had  been  appointed 
"Lord"  by  Raleigh.  This  is 
the  first  baptism  of  a  native 
of  Virginia;  and  the  first  re- 
corded missionary  donation  in 
England  was  one  of  £100  made  by  Raleigh  to  the  Virginia 
Company  (in  1588,  the  year  of  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish 
Armada)  for  the  propagation  of  the  Christian  religion  in 
that  settlement. 

Had  the  performance  of  the  early  colonies  been  pro- 
portionate to  the  profession  of  their  charters,  we  might 
have  been  spared  many  a  sad  page  in  the  history  of  the 
peopling  of  the  New  World.  In  practice,  however,  the 
conception  of  the  mission  was  subordinate  to  the  concep- 
tion of  the  colony,  and  at  the  most  meant  only  a  kind  of 
spiritual  clearing  around  the  settlements.  Elizabeth's 
successor,  James,  declared  in  a  proclamation  (1622)  that 


Seal   of   the   Governor   and 
Company  of  Massachusetts. 


40  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

his  zeal  for  the  extension  of  the  Gospel  was  the  special 
motive  for  encouraging  the  plantations.  In  the  charter 
which  his  son  Charles  I.  gave  to  Massachusetts  (1628)  it 
is  stated  that  the  "  principal  end  of  the  plantation  "  is  to 
"  win  and  invite  the  natives  of  the  country  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  only  true  God  and  Saviour  of  mankind  and  the 
Christian  faith."  The  device  on  the  seal  of  the  colony 
was  an  Indian  holding  in  his  mouth  a  label  "wdth  the 
words  "  Come  over  and  help  us."  Under  the  Common- 
Avealth  a  still  more  forward  step  was  taken.  A  petition 
from  English  and  Scottish  clergy,  including  Alexander 
Henderson,  urged  upon  the  Long 
Parliament  in  1644  the  spread  of 
the  Gospel  in  America  and  the  West 
Indies,  and  this,  combined  with  the 
influence  of  John  Eliot's  tracts,  no 
doubt  led  to  Cromwell's  passing 
an  ordinance  in  1649  by  which  he 
created  the  first  and  still  existing 
Protestant  Missionary  Society,  the 
"Corporation  for  the   Propagation 

Oliver  Cromwell.  q£    ^-^e    Gospel     in     New    England." 

A  general  collection  ordered  to  be  made  in  the  churches 
of  England  and  Wales  met  with  much  opposition,  and  the 
£12,000  raised  was  largely  due  to  the  ready  response  of  the 
army.  Cromwell  even  proposed  a  scheme  for  a  great  Pro- 
testant College  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith,  and  his 
aspirations  are  reflected  in  his  secretary  Milton's  missionary 
invocation,  which  included  such  words  as  these  :  "  Come 
forth  out  of  Thy  royal  chambers,  O  Prince  of  all  the  kings  of 
the  earth  ;  j^ut  on  the  visible  robes  of  Thy  imperial  majesty ; 
take  up  that  unlimited  sceptre  which  Thy  Almighty  Father 
hath  bequeathed  Thee ;  for  now  the  voice  of  Thy  bride 
calls  Thee,  and  all  creatures  sigh  to  be  renewed."  The 
proceeds  of  Cromwell's  collection  were  invested  in  land  and 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  41 

used  to  subsidise  missionaries  in  the  New  England  and  New 
York  States,  including  the  Eliots,  Mayhews,  and  perhaps  the 
pioneer  woman  missionary,  "  Mistress  Bland  of  the  Vine- 
yards," against  whose  name  in  the  Corporation's  accounts 
occurs  a  payment  "for  her  paines  and  care  among  the 
Indians  there,  and  for  physicke  and  surgery  not  brought 
to  account  last  year."  The  Corporation's  charter  was  with 
difficulty  renewed  at  the  Eestoration,  chiefly  through  the 
exertions  of  the  Hon.  Robert  Boyle,  the  eminent  philoso- 
pher and  Biblical  scholar  who  founded  the  Boyal  Society. 
]](>vle  was  tlie  GovGnior  of  tlii;  CorDoratioii  for  thirty  years, 

le  East  Indies, 


p>  W/.,  t^^-v^  /£  , 


# 


'liurch  in  the 
is    of    greater 
|vj^  '^t  New   Ply- 

grim  Fathers, 
;t  of  a  steady 
jtndents,  who 
the  Anglican 
Stuarts,  until 
)f    the    Long 

wmmmmmmm:  "^'*^    naturally 

expect  from  those  men  a  true  sense  of  responsibility  for 
their  heathen  neighbours,  and  indeed  we  find  that  one  of 
their  number  was  set  apart  as  early  as  1621  to  be  a 
missionary  to  the  Indians.  Little  immediate  result,  how- 
ever, followed.  The  colonists  were  too  much  occupied 
with  the  difficulties  of  their  new  settlement,  and  their 
material  interests  brought  them  into  unfortunate  and 
even  deadly  conflicts  with  the  Indians  before  John 
Eliot  began  his  bright  page  of  mission  history.  This 
"apostle  of  the  Indians,"  born  in  Essex  in  1604,  was 
a  distinguished  student  of  Cambridge  University,  and 
resolved  to  study  for  the  ministry,  but  Laud's  tyranny 


40 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


his  zeal  for  the  extension  of  the  Gospel  was  the  special 
motive  for  encouraging  the  plantations.  In  the  charter 
which  his  son  Charles  I.  gave  to  Massachusetts  (1628)  it 
is  stated  that  the  "  principal  end  of  the  plantation  "  is  to 
"  win  and  invite  the  natives  of  the  country  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  only  true  God  and  Saviour  of  mankind  and  the 
Christian  faith."  TV  \^.:s'ice  on  the  seal  of  the  colony 
was  an  Indian  hol^  ^^s   mouth   a  label  -with  the 

words  "  Come  ovf  '      lender  the  Common- 

wealth a  still  n^  ^taken.     A  petition 

from  English  ^'-JJg  Alexander 

""  ^he  Long 
-d  of 


..^'7^ 


Oliver  CROiiwELL.  r    ^ 

A  general  collection  ordered  to 

of  England  and  Wales  met  with  muci- 

£12,000  raised  was  largely  due  to  the  reau^ 

army.     Cromwell  even  proposed  a  scheme  for  . 

testant  College  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith,  .       .  as 

aspirations  are  reflected  in  his  secretary  Milton's  missionary 

invocation,  Avhich  included  such  words  as  these  :    "  Come 

forth  out  of  Thy  royal  chambers,  O  Prince  of  all  the  kings  of 

the  earth  ;  put  on  the  visible  robes  of  Thy  imperial  majesty; 

take  up  that  unlimited  sceptre  which  Thy  Almighty  Father 

hath  bequeathed  Thee ;  for  now  the  voice  of  Thy  bride 

calls  Thee,  and  all  creatures  sigh  to  be  renewed."     The 

proceeds  of  Cromwell's  collection  were  invested  in  land  and 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  41 

used  to  subsidise  missionaries  in  the  New  England  and  New 
York  States,  including  the  Eliots,  Mayhews,  and  perhaps  the 
pioneer  woman  missionary,  "  Mistress  Bland  of  the  Vine- 
yards," against  whose  name  in  the  Corporation's  accounts 
occurs  a  payment  "for  her  paines  and  care  among  the 
Indians  there,  and  for  physicke  and  surgery  not  brought 
to  account  last  year,"  The  Corporation's  charter  was  with 
difficulty  renewed  at  the  Restoration,  chiefly  through  the 
exertions  of  the  Hon.  Robert  Boyle,  the  eminent  philoso- 
pher and  Biblical  scholar  who  founded  the  Royal  Society, 
Boyle  was  the  Governor  of  the  Corporation  for  thirty  years, 
and  through  it,  as  well  as  by  his  interest  in  the  East  Indies, 
he  did  much  to  encourage  mission  work. 

For  the  expansion  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the 
North  American  Continent  no  event  was  of  greater 
import  than  the  arrival  of  the  Mayflower  at  New  Ply- 
mouth, Massachusetts,  in  1620  with  the  Pilgrim  Fathers, 
under  their  pastor,  John  Robinson — the  first  of  a  steady 
stream  of  Puritans  and  Brownists,  or  Independents,  who 
sought  a  refuge  from  the  harshness  of  the  Anglican 
Church  and  the  political  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts,  until 
the  persecution  ceased  on  the  meeting  of  the  Long 
Parliament  twenty  years  later.  We  would  naturally 
expect  from  those  men  a  true  sense  of  responsibility  for 
their  heathen  neighbours,  and  indeed  we  find  that  one  of 
their  number  w^as  set  apart  as  early  as  1621  to  be  a 
missionary  to  the  Indians.  Little  immediate  result,  how- 
ever, followed.  The  colonists  were  too  much  occupied 
with  the  difficulties  of  their  new  settlement,  and  their 
material  interests  brought  them  into  unfortunate  and 
even  deadly  conflicts  with  the  Indians  before  John 
Eliot  began  his  bright  page  of  mission  history.  This 
"apostle  of  the  Indians,"  born  in  Essex  in  160-4,  was 
a  distinguished  student  of  Cambridge  University,  and 
resolved  to  study  for  the  ministry,  but  Laud's  tyranny 


42  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

led  him  with  sixty  others  to  join  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
at  Boston  in  1631.  Other  non- conforming  comrades 
from  England  followed  the  next  year,  and,  settling 
at  Roxbury,  called  Eliot  to  be  their  pastor,  an  office 
which  he  held  for  almost  sixty  years.  His  scholarship 
soon  found  scope  in  a  new  version  of  the  Psalms,  which 
(1640)  was  the  first  book  printed  in  America.  But  his 
attentions  were  not  confined  to  his  English-speaking 
parishioners.  He  became  deeply  interested  in  the 
Moheecan  Indians,  and  having  previously  applied  himself 
to  the  study  of  their  language,  he  was  able,  in  1646,  to 
address  an  audience  in  the  wigwam  of  Waban,  their 
chief,  probably  "  the  first  sermon  ever  preached  in  North 
America  in  a  native  tongue."  The  interest  among  the 
Indians  spread  notwithstanding  the  violent  opposition  of 
their  pow-woivs  or  wizards.  Those  whom  Eliot  influenced 
(called  "praying  Indians")  were  gathered  into  a  com- 
munity, so  that  they  might  enjoy  systematic  religious 
instruction  as  well  as  be  trained  in  industries,  for,  said 
he,  "I  feel  it  absolutely  necessary  to  carry  on  civility 
with  religion."  Indians  from  distant  places  also  asked 
to  have  the  benefit  of  Eliot's  teaching,  and  in  the  course 
of  his  long  rides  to  reach  them  he  suffered  much  exposure 
and  fatigue.  "  I  have  not  been  dry,"  he  writes  on  one 
occasion,  "from  the  third  day  of  the  week  until  the 
sixth,  but  so  travel,  and  at  night  pull  off  my  boots  to 
wring  my  stockings,  and  on  with  them,  and  so  continue." 
In  spite  of  such  hardships  and  the  ignorant  and  violent  op- 
position, and  often  the  evil  example,  of  some  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen,  he  continued  his  heroic  labours.  Through 
the  help  of  Cromwell's  Corporation  and  a  grant  of  6000 
acres  from  the  State,  he  was  enr.bled  in  1650  to  realise 
his  cherished  scheme  of  bringing  all  his  people  to  one 
settlement  at  Natick,  18  miles  from  Boston.  There  he 
trained  preachers  and  teachers,  and  in  1660  he  founded 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  43 

a  church  witli  several  Indians  whom  he  deemed  worthy  of 
being  baptized  and  receiving  the  Lord's  Supper.  The 
work  prospered,  and  by  1674  there  were  1100  Indians  at 
Natick  and  the  other  fourteen  "  towns  "  of  praying  Indians. 
He  lived,  however,  to  see  his  lifelong  labours  sadly  marred. 
In  the  rising  of  the  Indians  against  the  whites  in  1675 
the  praying  Indians  were  cruelly  treated  by  both  sides. 
Some  of  them  proved  faithless,  and,  to  crown  his  troubles, 
Eliot  himself  was  reviled  and  suspected  by  the  whites. 
But  not  even  that  shook  the  faith 
of  him  who  in  his  old  age  could 
write  to  Eobert  Boyle,  "My 
understanding  leaves  me,  my 
memory  fails  me,  but  I  thank 
God  my  charity  holds  out."  In 
his  last  illness,  when  there  was 
"  a  dark  cloud  upon  the  work  of 
the  Gospel "  among  the  Indians, 
he  prayed,  ''The  Lord  revive 
and  prosper  that  work,  and  ^rant 

1       1  )j  '^'he  Apostle  of  the 

that  it  may  live  when  1  am  dead.  j^^d  Indians. 

The     answer     came,      though     not         From  Conquests  of  the  Cross 

perhaps  as  he  expected,  for  by  (Casseii  and  Co.,  Ltd.). 
1726  the  church  which  was  founded  by  him  was  extinct. 
*'  The  last  of  the  Moheecans  "  has  long  since  disappeared, 
and  the  Bible,  which  he  translated  into  their  language, 
and  which  was  the  first  Bible  printed  in  America,  is  now 
a  mere  literary  curiosity.  So  are  his  other  publications — 
monuments  of  his  scholarship  and  industry,  and  among 
them  that  Indian  grammar  which  he  ended  with  the 
words,  now  classic,  "Prayer  and  pains  through  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ  can  do  anything."  When  the  old  man 
was  too  infirm  to  visit  his  Indians  he  induced  several 
families  to  send  their  negro  servants  to  him  once  a  week  for 
Gospel  instruction — a  beautiful  commentary  on  a  former 


44  MISSIOKARY  EXPANSION 

saying  of  his,  "  Were  I  to  go  to  heaven  to-morrow,  I  would 
do  what  I  am  doing  to-day,"  and  it  was  a  fitting  close  to 
such  a  life  in  1690  that  he  passed  away  with  the  words 
"  Welcome  joy  "  upon  his  lips. 

Not  less  significant  than  Eliot's  labours  for  the  Red 
Indians  was  the  160  years'  work  of  four  generations  of  the 
Mayhew  family.  In  Thomas  Mayhew,  senior,  we  have  a 
notable  example  of  a  Christian  colonist  who  tried  to  do  his 
duty  to  the  heathen  on  his  large  estates.  Mr.  Mayhew 
secured  in  1642  a  grant  of  Martha's  Vineyard  and  other 
islands  off  the  Massachusetts  coast.  His  son  Thomas, 
becoming  pastor  to  the  few  English  settlers,  turned  his 
thoughts,  like  his  contemporary  Eliot,  to  the  numerous 
Indians  in  the  islands;  and  being  a  man  of  "  singular  sweet- 
ness and  affability  of  manner,  he  wonderfully  gained  their 
affection."  The  earliest  convert  was  Hiacoomes,  afterguards 
the  first  native  minister  on  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  a  great 
impetus  was  given  to  the  work  in  1650  by  the  conversion 
of  two  pow-wows.  Mr,  Thomas  Mayhew,  junior,  perished 
while  on  a  voyage  to  England  to  stir  up  interest  in  the 
mission.  His  noble  father,  then  seventy  years  of  age, 
took  up  the  work,  and,  perfecting  himself  in  the  language, 
became  the  preacher  to  the  Indians  as  well  as  Governor  of 
the  Islands  until  his  death  twenty-four  years  later.  By 
-1674  three  -  fourths  of  the  population  were  "praying 
Indians." 

William  Penn,  the  Quaker,  founded  Philadelphia  in 
Pennsylvania  in  1682.  "The  first  step  he  took,"  says 
Voltaire,  "  was  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with  his  American 
neighbours,  and  this  is  the  only  treaty  between  those 
people  and  the  Christians  that  was  not  ratified  by  an 
oath,  and  was  never  broken."  A  marble  monument  now 
marks  the  spot  where  the  conference,  conducted  in  the  spirit 
of  "  openness  and  love,"  was  held  under  a  huge  elm  tree. 
Mackenzie,  the  historian,  says  that  while  in  neighbouring 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  45 

settlements  the  colonists  were  massacring  and  being 
massacred,  "no  drop  of  Quaker  blood  was  ever  shed  by 
Indian  hand  in  the  Pennsylvanian  territory."  Another 
historian  says  that  Penn's  career  in  this  new  settlement 
"  is  one  of  the  few  things  in  history  on  which  we  can  dwell 
with  unalloyed  pleasure  and  satisfaction." 

A  true  evangelist  was  John  Sergeant,  a  tutor  of  Yale 
College,  who  went  in  1734  as  a  missionary  among  the 
Housatonnacks  in  Massachusetts,  on  the  invitation  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Indian  affairs.  "  I  should  be  ashamed," 
he  said,  "  to  call  myself  a  Christian,  or  even  a  man,  and 
yet  refuse  to  do  what  lay  in  my  power  to  cultivate 
humanity  among  a  people  naturally  ingenious  enough, 
but  who  for  want  of  instruction  live  so  much  below  the 
dignity  of  human  nature,  and  to  promote  the  salvation  of 
souls  perishing  in  the  dark  when  yet  the  light  of  life  is  so 
near  them."  He  collected  the  few  scattered  Indians  at  a 
place  called  Stockbridge,  and  the  work  prospered,  though 
it  was  terribly  hampered  by  the  drunkenness  of  the  elder 
Indians,  corrupted  by  the  rum  of  the  Dutch  and  other 
traders.  He  turned  with  hopefulness  to  the  training  of 
the  children,  and  support  for  his  scheme  was  given  in 
England  by  members  of  different  churches.  His  death 
in  1749  prevented  the  realisation  of  his  plans. 

Mr.  Sergeant's  work,  then  the  principal  mission  of  the 
New  England  Corporation,  was  carried  on  by  the  dis- 
tinguished student,  Jonathan  Edwards,  until  his  appoint- 
ment as  President  of  Princeton  College.  Perhaps  Edwards's 
greatest  service  to  the  missionary  cause  was  his  biography 
of  his  friend,  David  Brainerd,  whose  spiritual  aspirations 
and  three  years'  apostolical  labours  among  the  Indians  at 
the  Forks  of  the  Delaware  ^  and  elsewhere  are  a  precious 
legacy  to  the  whole  Christian  Church,  and  have  led  others, 

^  In  the  Swedish  Colony  founded  in  1637  on  the  Delaware,  Oxen- 
stierna  and  others  laboured  until  the  colony  became  English, 


46 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


such  as  the  like-minded  Henry  Martyn,  to  follow  in  his 
train.  Never  was  a  man  more  dead  to  the  world  or  fuller 
of  longings  after  the  glory  of  God.  On  some  occasions 
wonderful  manifestations  of  the  Sj^irit  followed  his  preach- 
ing to  the  Indians,  and  many  were  baptized.  He  was  ready 
to  do  or  suffer  anything  for  those  who  were  without  Christ, 
and  his  life  proved  the  reality  of 
his  prayer  :  "  Here  am  I,  send  me  : 
send  me  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ; 
send  me  to  the  rough,  the  savage 
pagans  of  the  wilderness  ;  send  me 
from  all  that  is  called  comfort  on 
earth ;  send  me  even  to  death 
itself,  if  it  be  but  in  Thy  service, 
and  to  promote  Thy  kingdom." 
His  constitution,  never  robust,  was 
shattered  by  the  privations  he  en- 
dured, but  he  toiled  on  till  he 
could  no  longer  sit  in  his  saddle. 
In  1747,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty,  in  the  house  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  to  whose  daughter  he  was  affianced,  he  died,  hav- 
ing even  in  this  life  had  a  foretaste  of  that  heaven  which  he 
described  as  "to  please  God,  to  give  all  to  Him,  to  be 
wholly  devoted  to  His  glory." 

David  Brainerd  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  John, 
who  was,  like  himself,  partially  supported  by  the  Scottish 
Society  for  Propagating  Christian  Knowledge.  This  Society, 
founded  (1709)  chiefly  for  work  in  the  Highlands,  estab- 
lished at  New  York  in  1741  a  "  Board  of  Correspondents," 
which  was  the  parent  of  the  great  Board  of  ^Missions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  (North)  of  the  United  States. 
The  connection  lasted  till  the  American  War  of  Independ- 
ence, which  was  disastrous  to  the  Indians  and  to  the 
mission  work  among  them.  No  great  numerical  results, 
indeed,  of  those  early  efforts  remained,  and  the  successful 


Rev.  Principal  Jonathan 
Edwards. 


EAELIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE 


47 


S.P.G.  Seal. 


work   of  the   nineteenth   century  was   largely  from   new 
beginnings  under  more  hopeful  conditions. 

In  1701  the  Church  of  England  Society  for  the  Pro- 
pagation of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts  was  founded  for  the 
"  maintenance  of  clergymen  in 
the  plantations,  colonies,  and 
factories  of  Great  Britain,  and 
for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  those  parts,"  and  its  first 
missionaries,  George  Keith  and 
Patrick  Gordon,  landed  at  Boston 
in  1702.  Although  the  chief 
object  of  the  promoters  of  the 
Society  was  to  minister  to  the 
spiritual  needs  of  the  colonists,  it  aimed  from  the  first  at 
the  conversion  of  the  natives ;  and  we  learn,  on  the 
authority  of  Bishop  Seeker  in 
1741,  that  "  great  multitudes  of 
negroes  and  Indians  "  had  been 
converted.  In  1710  four  Indian 
sachems  or  chiefs  came  to  Eng- 
land to  express  their  loyalty  to 
Queen  Anne  and  to  ask  for 
missionaries.  The  appeal  was 
gladly  responded  to  by  the  Pro- 
pagation Society,  to  whom  the 
matter  had  been  referred. 

The  Society's  first  agents 
were  brought  into  contact  with 
the  slave  trade,  and  Mr.  Kean,  one  of  its  missionaries 
among  the  negroes  of  New  York,  as  early  as  1704 
complained  of  the  opposition  of  the  inhabitants,  who 
were  strangely  prejudiced  with  a  "horrid  notion,"  that 
the  Christian   knowledge  would  be   "a  means  to  make 


Signatures  of  the  Indian 
Sachems. 

(From  Diijest  of  S.P.G.  Records.) 


48  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

their  slaves  more  cunning  and  apt  to  wickedness  than 
they  were."  The  accursed  traffic  did  not  harmonise  well 
with  mission  work,  and  few  of  the  slave-drivers  were 
willing  to  have  their  "chattels"  taught,  as  George  Fox 
(1624-1691),  the  founder  of  the  Quakers,  in  those  noble 
words  urged  :  "  All  Friends  everywhere  that  have  Indians 
or  blacks,  you  are  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  them  and  other 
servants,  if  you  be  true  Christians,  for  the  gospel  of 
salvation  was  to  be  preached  to  every  creature  under 
heaven." 

Sir  John  Hawkins  was  the  first  Englishman  to  stain 
his  hands  with  the  accursed  traffic,  and  his  own  narrative 
tells  us  how,  coming  in  1567  to  an  African  town,  thatched 
with  palm  leaves,  he  set  fire  to  the  huts,  and,  out  of  "  8000 
inhabitants,  succeeded  in  seizing  250  prisoners — men, 
women,  and  children."  In  those  days  England  was  a  mere 
procurer  of  slaves  for  others,  but  when  she  got  colonies  of 
her  own  she  followed  the  bad  example  of  enslaving  brother 
men  for  her  own  selfish  uses.  Nor  was  the  debasing  in- 
fluence of  the  traffic  unfelt  in  the  home  land.  By  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht  (1713)  the  slave  trade  became,  says  Mr. 
Lecky,  "a  central  object  of  English  policy,"  and,  according  to 
Professor  Seeley,  "  secularised  and  materialised  the  English 
people  as  nothing  had  ever  done  before.  Never  were 
sordid  motives  so  supreme,  never  was  religion  and  every 
high  influence  so  discredited  as  in  the  thirty  years  that 
followed."  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  little  true  mission 
work  was  attempted  among  the  negro  slaves.  A  bright 
gleam  in  the  darkness  comes  to  us  in  the  Will  of  General 
Codrington,  Governor  of  the  Leeward  Islands,  who  left 
to  the  Propagation  Society  two  valuable  estates  in  the 
Island  of  Barbadoes,  his  design  being  "the  maintenance 
of  monks  and  missionaries  to  be  employed  in  the  conversion 
of  negroes  and  Indians."  Codrington  College  is  still  a 
valuable   missionary   agency.      We   have   an   interesting 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  49 

connection  between  America  and  Africa  in  the  appoint- 
ment to  the  Gold  Coast  Colony  in  1751  of  Rev.  James 
Thompson,  one  of  the  Society's  evangelists  in  New  Jersey, 
who  thus  became  the  first  missionary  of  the  Church  of 
England  to  the  Dark  Continent. 

Prior  to  its  union  with  England,  Scotland  as  a  nation 
seems  only  to  have  been  brought  into  contact  with  the 
heathen  world  in  1699  through  its  disastrous  Darien 
Expedition,  which  carried  with  it  ministers  who  were 
enjoined  by  the  General  Assembly 
to  labour  among  the  heathen. 

The  New  World  mission-field 
attracted  the  sympathy  of  some  of 
the  most  distinguished  divines  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  such  as 
Bishop  Berkeley,  Wesley,  Whit- 
field, and  Doddridge.  Berkeley, 
the  brilliant  philosopher,  wrote  in 
1723:  "It  is  now  two  months 
since  I  have  determined  to  spend  John  Wesley. 

the    residue    of    my    days    in    Ber-         From  Knight's  Portraits. 

muda"  in  order  to  found  a  college  for  the  "English 
youth  "  and  the  education  of  "  young  American  savages  " 
who  should  be  missionaries  among  their  own  country- 
men;  and  in  1729  he  gave  up  his  deanery  and  sailed 
to  Rhode  Island.  But  the  interest  at  home  flagged  in 
his  absence,  and  he  came  home  disappointed  in  1731. 
John  Wesley  was  also  for  two  years  in  Georgia  under 
the  Propagation  Society,  and  returned  with  the  com- 
plaint that  the  "  real  Indians  "  were  evil  livers  and  that 
none  cared  to  hear  the  Gospel — rather  a  strange  excuse,  as 
his  biographer  Southey  hints,  to  come  from  a  missionary, 
and  one,  too,  who  afterwards  exercised  such  a  powerful 
missionary  influence.  But  he  had  not  then  come  into 
contact  with  the  Moravians  at  Herrnhut,  and  perhaps  he 

4 


50  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

had  gone  to  America  more  through  the  influence  of  his 
mother  than  any  liking  of  his  own,  for  when  he  had  at 
first  declined  the  invitation  of  the  trustees  of  the  colony, 
on  the  ground  of  filial  responsibility,  the  noble  woman  had 
said,  "Had  I  twenty  sons,  I  should  rejoice  that  they 
were  so  employed,  though  I  never  saw  them  more." 

II.  India 

It  was  on  31st  December  1600  that  Queen  Elizabeth 
granted  to  a  company  of  traders  the  first  charter  of  the  East 
India  Company,  from  which  small  beginning  has  been  evolved 
Britain's  chief  possession.  As  in  the  case  of  the  American 
colonies,  there  was,  in  theory  at  least,  a  certain  religious 
element  in  its  conception,  and  a  later  charter  of  William 
III.  provided  that  the  schoolmasters  and  ministers  of  the 
Company  were  to  learn  both  Portuguese  and  the  vernacular 
of  their  districts,  in  order  "  the  better  to  enable  them  to 
instruct  the  Gentoos  in  the  Protestant  religion."  Strange, 
therefore,  is  it  that  for  nearly  200  years  no  one  went  forth 
from  Britain  as  an  avowed  missionary  to  India.  Still, 
although  the  nation  as  a  whole  was  so  long  indifi"erent, 
there  were  individuals  here  and  there  whose  mission-con- 
science was  aroused.  Among  them  was  Dean  Prideaux,  who 
in  1694  urged  on  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  the  founda- 
tion of  a  missionary  seminary,  on  the  ground  of  England's 
responsibility  for  the  souls  of  the  heathen  in  her  East 
Indian  possessions.  There  were,  too,  chaplains  and  civilians 
whose  pious  lives  were  precious  gifts,  and  who  yearned 
after  the  conversion  of  the  natives,  but  the  general  im- 
pression made  by  the  chronicles  of  those  older  days  is  that 
the  example  of  the  Europeans  was  more  a  stumbling-block 
than  a  help  to  the  spread  of  Christianity.  Let  us  hope, 
however,  that  there  was  exaggeration  in  the  witness  of 
Terry,  the  chaplain  of  Sir  Thomas  Roe's  Embassy  from 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE 


James  I.  to  the  Great  Moghul,  when  he  represented  the 
impression  made  upon  the  natives  by  the  conduct  of  the 
English  as  "Christian  religion,  devil  religion,  Christian 
much  drunk,  Christian  much  do  wrong,  much  beat,  much 
abuse  others."  Job  Charnock,  the  founder  of  Calcutta, 
and  the  first  Governor  of  Bengal,  became  an  avowed 
pagan  under  the  influence  of  his  native  wife,  and  when 
she  died  he  sacrificed  a  cock  every  year  upon  her  tomb. 
Although  there  were  no  direct  British  missionaries,  it  must 
ever  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  Danish-Halle  ^Mission  to 
Tranquebar,  whose  story  we  are  about 
to  tell,  was  encouraged  by  such  chap- 
lains of  the  East  India  Company  as 
George  Lewis  and  William  Stevenson, 
and  that  it  was  to  an  ever-increasing 
extent  dependent  for  its  support  upon 
the  English  "  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge."  Some  of  its 
missionaries,  such  as  Schwartz,  were 
looked  upon  as  the  Society's  own 
agents.  By  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  stream  of  Danish  and  German  liberality 
had  dried  up,  and  the  mission  looked  almost  entirely 
to  the  Society  for  help.  George  I.  himself,  in  a  })rivate 
letter  to  Ziegenbalg,  indicated  interest  in  his  work,  and  a 
Court  collection  was  made  for  it.  Nor  must  we  overlook 
the  attitude  of  the  East  India  Company  to  Schwartz,  or 
the  influence  in  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  of  some 
of  its  servants  in  at  length  arousing  the  conscience  of  the 
home-lands.  With  all  its  faults — and  from  a  missionary 
l)oint  of  view  these  were  not  few — we  cannot  forget  that  by 
its  commerce,  its  laws,  and  its  work  of  unifying  and  pacify- 
ing India,  the  East  India  Company  prepared  the  way  for 
the  missionary  opportunities  of    the  nineteenth  century. 


S.P.C.K.  Seal. 


52  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

The  Danish  Colonies  with  German  Co-operation 
I.  Danish-Halle  Mission  to  India 

Denmark  had  colonies  in  the  East  Indies  from  1620, 
and  in  the  West  Indies  and  Gold  Coast  from  1672,  but  it 
was  not  till  the  eighteenth  century  that  an  attempt  was 
made  to  evangelise  its  heathen  subjects.  King  Frederick 
IV.,  while  yet  Crown  Prince,  had  been  occupied  with 
mission  thoughts,  and  in  1705  seems  to  have  been 
filled  with  misgivings  over  neglected  opportunities. 
Liitkens,  his  chaplain,  was  only  too  eager  to  further 
his  plans,  and  when  asked  by  the  king  to  procure  mis- 
sionaries, the  old  man  is  reported  to  have  replied,  "  Send 
me."  The  king  could  not  part  with  his  favourite,  and 
Liitkens  applied  to  his  old  associates  in  Germany  to  secure 
men.  At  that  time  the  Lutheran  Church  of  Germany  and 
Denmark  was  pervaded  by  a  "  formal,  dry,  lifeless  ortho- 
doxy," which  was  more  concerned  with  theological  con- 
troversies than  with  matters  of  church  expansion.  The 
preceding  century  had  been  as  fruitless  in  this  respect 
as  that  of  the  Reformation.  There  had  been  indeed  a 
few  souls  to  whose  obedience  the  missionary  command 
appealed,  but  these  had  not  been  the  theologians,  who 
almost  invariably  opposed  them.  Let  us  glance  at  two  of 
the  seventeenth-century  pioneers. 

Through  the  influence  of  Hugo  Grotius,  whose  mission- 
ary treatise  has  been  referred  to,  seven  jurists  of  Liibeck 
devoted  themselves  to  mission  work,  particularly  to  the 
quickening  of  the  decaying  churches  of  the  East ;  but  only 
one  of  them,  Peter  Heyling,  a  student  of  distinction,  seems 
to  have  carried  out  his  intention  to  much  purpose.  Leav- 
ing Paris  for  Abyssinia  in  1632,  he  qualified  himself  on 
the  way  by  studying  Arabic  at  Alexandria,  and  Syriac 
among  the  Coptic  monasteries  of  the  Thebaid  (desert),  and 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  53 

reached  his  destination  in  1634  or  1635.  He  found  the 
clergy  using  the  Scriptures  in  the  Ethiopian  language, 
which  was  not  understood  by  the  common  people,  and  he 
conferred  a  priceless  boon  upon  the  Abyssinian  Church  by 
translating  them  into  Amharic.  He  seems  to  have  ac- 
quired great  influence  over  the  king  and  people.  Accord- 
ing to  Bruce,  the  traveller,  he  became  the  real  ruler  of  the 
kingdom,  and  while  the  authentic  information  about  him 
is  scanty,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  affection  felt  for 
him — an  affection  which  caused  a  young  Abyssinian  to 
take  a  journey  to  see  that  Liibeck  from  which  his  dear 
teacher,  "  Doctor  Peter,"  had  come. 

As  we  lose  sight  of  Heyling  we  meet  a  still  more 
important  personality  in  the  Austrian  Baron  von  Welz, 
than  whom  few  more  devoted  or  enlightened  men  are 
found  in  the  roll  of  missionary  heroes.  His  heart  burned 
with  love  to  Christ ;  his  mind  was  full  of  schemes  for  the 
world-wide  extension  of  the  Gospel,  and  his  rank  and 
fortune  Avere  devoted  to  their  fulfilment.  In  1664  he 
published  two  treatises  in  which  he  summoned  "  all  right- 
believing  Christians  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  "  to  the 
formation  of  a  Jesus  Society  of  Christian  Edification, 
treating  of  the  improvement  of  Christendom  and  the 
conversion  of  heathendom,  and  particularly  asked,  in 
language  not  yet  out  of  date,  if  it  is  right  that  "we 
evangelical  Christians"  (1)  "hold  the  Gospel  for  our- 
selves alone,  and  do  not  spread  it  to  others " ;  (2) 
"have  so  many  students  of  theology,  and  do  not  induce 
them  to  labour  elsewhere  in  the  spiritual  vineyard  of 
Jesus  Christ";  and  (3)  "expend  so  much  on  all  sorts 
of  dress,  delicacies  in  eating  and  drinking,  etc.,  but  have 
hitherto  thought  of  no  means  for  the  spread  of  the 
Gospel"?  Says  Warneck,  "Such  a  genuine  mission 
sound  had  never  been  heard  in  the  Lutheran  Church." 
Yet  it  was  unheeded,  and  Von  Welz  repeated  the  admoni- 


54  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

tion,   with  the  suggestion    that  each   University  of   the 

Evangelical  presidencies  should  have  a  Missionary  College 

with  three  Professors  attached  to  it.     But  Von  Welz  was 

before  his  time,  and  the  attitude  of  the  Lutheran  Church 

may  be  judged  from   the  answer  of  Ursinus,  one  of  the 

leading  theologians  of  the  time,  who  said  of  the  proposed 

Jesus  Association,  "  Protect  us  from  it,  dear  Lord  God." 

Thus  opposed  by  others  in  his  plans,  the  noble  Von  Welz 

resolved  to  carry  them  out  as  far  as  possible  in  his  own 

person.      He  was  ordained  an 

1    "  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,"  and 

J/I^^k  '■    laid  aside  his  baronial  title  with 

^       ^m  '    the  words  "  What  to  me  is  the 

^"^^  title  '  well-born '  when  I  am  one 

^  born  again  in  Christ  ?  .  .  .  All 

these  vanities  I  will  away  with, 

and  everything   besides   I  will 

lay  at  the  feet    of    Jesus,  my 

dearest  Lord,  that  I  may  have 

no    hindrance   in    serving   him 

aright."  Going  to-Dutch  Guiana, 

Augustus  Herman  Francke.        j^^  ^^^^  ^^^^^  fg^  ^  ^^^,^1^^^  ^^  ^^le 
From  Guerike's  Life.  ,       .  , . 

trying  climate. 
Even  then,  however,  in  the  midst  of  the  barren  ortho- 
doxy and  formalism  a  spiritual  revival  was  in  progress  in 
Germany  which  was  to  have  far-reaching  missionary  con- 
sequences for  King  Frederick's  mission,  and  may  indeed  be 
considered  the  "  spring  and  inspiration  of  the  missionary 
movement  of  the  eighteenth  century."  Spener,  Francke, 
and  Lange  were  three  chief  leaders.  The  first  was  the 
king's  chaplain  at  Berlin,  and  "the  most  famous  pastor 
of  his  time,"  and  the  last  the  rector  of  the  Berlin  High 
►School.  Francke,  Professor  of  Theology  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Halle,  and,  as  Carlyle  calls  him,  "  founder  of  the 
Grand  Orphan  Home  built  by  charitable  beggings,"  with 


k. 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  55 

its  two  thousand  inmates,  was,  next  to  Spener,  the  prin- 
cipal representative  of  the  movement,  and  awakened  in 
his  students  "  a  spirit  of  absolute  devotedness  to  the  king- 
dom of  God,  such  as  he  himself  possessed  in  the  highest 
degree.  The  spirit  made  them  go  wherever  they  were 
needed."  Francke's  plans  for  a  world-wide  Gospel  included 
an  oriental  college  and  universal  seminary,  and  in  this  he 
was  probably  influenced  by  the  philosopher  Leibnitz,  who 
urged  the  Lutheran  Church  to  send  missionaries  to  China, 
and  induced  the  Berlin  Academy  of  the  Sciences  to  intro- 
duce into  its  deed  of  foundation  (1700)  a  clause  pledg- 
ing it  to  "  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Chris- 
tian virtues."  "  Pietists  "  those  men  and  their  followers 
were  nicknamed;  and  they  experienced  the  truth  of  the  say- 
ing that  "  primitive  piety  revived,  always  means  primitive 
persecution  revived."  It  was  from  among  them  that 
Ltitkens  got  his  first  missionaries,  Bartholomew  Ziegen- 
balg  and  Heinrich  Pliitschau,  two  Pietist  theological 
students.  Francke  was  their  spiritual  father,  and  he 
shortly  became  the  main  superintendent  of  the  mission, 
which  came  to  be  known  by  the  name  of  "  Danish-Halle." 
In  1710  Francke  published  the  first  regular  missionary 
periodical,  which  continued  to  be  issued  by  the  Orphan 
press  till  1880.  In  the  missionary  atmosphere  of  Halle, 
too,  was  produced  the  first  regular  missionary  hymn, 
Bogatzky's  "Awake,  thou  spirit  of  the  first  witnesses." 

In  November  1705  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau  left 
Copenhagen  for  the  Danish  colony  of  Tranquebar,  on  the 
Coromandel  coast,  to  the  south  of  Madras  city,  and  w^hen 
they  stepped  ashore  on  9th  July  1706  they  were  the  first 
Protestant  missionaries  to  set  foot  on  Indian  soil.  Royal 
auspices  did  not  save  them  from  the  opposition  of  the 
trading  company  and  the  local  Danish  authorities,  and 
they  were  only  allowed  to  land  after  vexatious  delays. 
The  Governor   told   them   roughly  they  were   a    "mere 


56  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

nuisance,"  and  those  two  honoured  messengers  of  Christ 
were  left  alone  in  the  deserted  and  darkening  city  square 
by  inhospitable  officials,  and  would  have  spent  their  first 
night  under  the  open  heavens  had  not  one  of  the  Governor's 
suite  out  of  pity  sheltered  them.  With  indomitable  zeal 
and  extraordinary  patience  Ziegenbalg  mastered  the  Tamil 
language,  studied  the  native  literature,  produced  a  grammar 
and  dictionary,  and  translated  the  New  Testament  and 
part  of  the  Old.  Ten  months  after  their  arrival  the  mis- 
sionaries baptized  five  slaves,  whose  broken  Portuguese 
dialect  they  had  also  acquired,  and  in  three  months 
they  opened  their  first  church,  called  "  New  Jerusalem." 
Three  weeks  later  nine  Hindus  were  baptized.  Ziegen- 
balg made  evangelistic  tours  in  the  kingdom  of  Tanjore, 
and  the  account  of  these  and  his  other  missionary  labours 
created  great  interest  in  Europe.  By  1719  there  were  355 
converts,  with  a  mission  seminary  and  school,  and  the 
literary  labours  of  the  missionaries  were  widely  extended 
by  means  of  their  paper-mill,  type-foundry,  and  printing 
press.  Ill-health  soon  forced  Pliitschau  to  leave.  Four 
years  later  (1715)  Ziegenbalg  was  also  ordered  home  from 
the  same  cause.  Though  weak  in  body,  his  presence 
and  addresses  aroused  enthusiasm  in  Germany  and  Eng- 
land, and  led  to  the  recall  of  the  hostile  Governor  of 
Tranquebar.  He  sped  back  to  India  as  soon  as  possible, 
and  after  two  years  of  abundant  labours,  undertaken  with 
failing  strength,  he  fell  asleep  at  thirty-six.  "  Certainly," 
wrote  Dr.  Duff,  "  he  was  a  great  missionary ;  considering 
that  he  was  the  first,  inferior  to  none,  scarcely  second  to 
any  one  that  followed  him." 

The  most  eminent  of  the  Danish-Halle  missionaries  was 
another  disciple  of  Francke  at  Halle,  Christian  Frederic 
Schwartz,  whose  dying  mother  left  her  infant  to  her  husband 
with  these  words,  "  I  have  dedicated  our  youngest  son  to 
God  for  such  service  as  He  shall  appoint.     Answer  me  that 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  57 

when  he  hears  the  Lord's  call  you  will  not  discourage  it." 
The  call  came  to  him  in  1750,  when  he  was  twenty-three, 
through  the  missionary  Schmitz,  who  was  then  seeing  a 
new  edition  of  the  Tamil    New  Testament  through  the 
Halle  press  ;  and  India,  to  use  the  words  of  Bishop  Heber, 
received  "  one  of  the  most  active,  fearless,  and  successful 
missionaries  who  have  appeared  since  the  Apostles."    Much 
success   attended  his   missionary  labours   in  Tranquebar, 
in  Trichinopoly  from  1761,  and  Tanjore  from  1776.     He 
•  was  indefatigable  in  his  missionary  tours,  and  wherever 
he  went,  his  devoted,  modest,  and  unselfish  life,  his  care 
for  the  poor  and  the  indigent, 
his  scholarship  and  knowledge  of 
native    languages    and   thought, 
and  his  marvellous  personal  in- 
fluence fascinated  Europeans  and 
Indians.      The  Hindu  Rajah  of 
Tanjore  had  such  confidence  in 
him   that  "when   on   his  death 
bed,"  to  quote  from  the  Schwartz 
Memorial    Monument,    "he    de- 
sired to  entrust  to  his  protecting  care  his  adopted   son 
Serfojee,    the    present    Rajah,    with    the    administration 
of    all    the    aflfairs    of    his    country";    and    this  wish  of 
the    Rajah    was    afterwards    respected    by    the    British 
Government,  and,  in   consequence,  great  political  power 
was  placed  in  Schwartz's  hands.       Through  his  influence 
the  observance  of  the  cruel  custom  of  siittee  (the  burning 
of  the  widow  on  the  funeral  pyre)  was  prevented  at  the 
Rajah's  death,  and  he  secured  the  young  Rajah's  support  to 
a  system  of  Christian  vernacular  schools  in  Tanjore.    When 
the  British  desired  to  treat  with  the  dreaded  Hyder  Ali, 
the  scourge  of  the  Carnatic,  they  sent  Schwartz  to  Seringa- 
patam  as   peacemaker,  and  he  so  won  the  heart  of  the 
tyrant  that  on  a  subsequent  occasion  Hyder  Ali  requested 


58  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

the  Government  to  send  none  of  "  your  agents,"  whose  words 
and  pledges  he  mistrusted,  but  "send  me  the  Christian 
missionary,  and  I  will  receive  him."  In  the  inscription  on 
the  monument  which  the  East  India  Company,  "  anxious 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  such  transcendent  worth," 
placed  in  St,  Mary's  Church,  Madras,  in  1798,  it  was  stated 
that  the  same  Hyder  Ali,  "  in  the  midst  of  a  bloody  and 
vindictive  war  with  the  Carnatic,  sent  orders  to  his  officers 
to  permit  the  venerable  Father  Schwartz  to  pass  un- 
molested, and  show  him  respect  and  kindness,  for  he  is  a 
holy  man  and  means  no  harm  to  my  Government."  The 
Rajah  of  Tanjore  also  erected  in  the  Fort  Church,  Tanjore, 
a  superb  marble  monument  by  the  sculptor  Flaxman,  and 
inscribed  on  it  a  touching  epitaph  expressive  of  his  affection 
and  respect,  and  concluding  with  the  desire  that  he  might 
be  worthy  of  his  "father"  Schwartz.  When  Claudius 
Buchanan  visited  Tanjore  he  found  Schwartz's  portrait 
hung  with  those  of  the  Hindu  Princes. 

One  of  Schwartz's  contemporaries  was  Kiernander, 
who,  being  compelled  with  other  missionaries  to  with- 
draw from  Cuddalore  by  the  French,  founded  a  mission 
at  Calcutta  on  the  invitation  of  Clive  in  the  year  after 
the  battle  of  Plassey,  and  was  thus  the  first  Protestant 
missionary  in  North  India.  He  laboured  until  1796,  less 
among  the  natives  than  among  the  descendants  of  Portu- 
guese and  other  European  residents,  whose  religious  and 
moral  condition  was  extremely  low,  and  the  work  was 
abandoned  at  his  death  in  1799.  Yet  he  sowed  seed  and 
reaped  some  first-fruits. 

The  Danish-Halle  Mission  lived  till  near  the  end  of  the 
century,  when  the  rationalism  in  the  home-land  killed  it. 
It  found  its  continuity  in  the  successful  missions  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  the  Dresden -Leipsic  Lutheran 
Society.  It  was  served  by  a  succession  of  able  men,  some 
of  them  medical  missionaries ;  and  altogether  50,000  con- 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE  59 

verts  were  won  by  their  witness,  though  the  number  living 
at  Schwartz's  death  was  by  no  means  so  great.  An  un- 
fortunate blunder  was  made  by  them  in  allowing  the  con- 
verts to  retain  their  caste  customs  and  prejudices,  and  this 
compromise  with  what  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Christ 
weakened  the  spiritual  power  of  the  Church  and  eventually 
led  to  serious  defections.  They  also  seem  to  have  been  too 
backward  in  the  ordaining  of  native  pastors.  We  have, 
however,  more  reason  to  honour  the  faith  than  to  criticise 
the  methods  of  these  noble  pioneers,  the  sole  represent- 
atives of  Protestant  missions  in  India  till  near  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

II.   The  Danes  in  Greenland 

The  Missionary  College  which  was  established  at 
Copenhagen  in  1714  as  a  department  of  State  had  its 
attention  turned  to  the  frozen  north  as  well  as  to  the 
tropical  Indies.  Under  its  auspices  Thomas  von  Westen, 
a  scholarly  and  self-denying  Norwegian  pastor  in  the 
diocese  of  Drontheim,  made  three  tours  in  Lapland 
between  1716  and  1722,  and  some  idea  of  the  impression 
he  made  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  for  a  century 
the  people  spoke  of  him  as  "the  parson  who  loved  the 
Finns."  Even  before  Von  Westen  undertook  his  apostolic 
journeys,  Hans  Egede,  his  brother  -  pastor  of  Vaagen,  in 
the  Lofoden  Islands  to  the  north  of  Drontheim,  was 
brooding  over  the  needs  of  the  still  more  inhospitable 
Greenland,  more  truly  named  the  "Land  of  Desola- 
tion" by  the  explorer,  John  Davis  (1585).  Reading 
of  Norse  Christian  settlers  who  centuries  before  had 
settled  in  Greenland,  but  were  lost  to  history  for  200 
years,  he  felt  drawn  to  seek  their  spiritual  welfare.  The 
impression  was  deepened  by  the  account  of  the  degraded 
state  of  the  inhabitants  brought  by  a  brother-in-law,  who 


60  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

had  visited  Greenland,  and  in  1710  he  communicated  to 
the  Bishop  of  Bergen  and  Drontheim  "  a  proposition  for 
Greenland's  conversion  and  enlightenment."  The  story  of 
his  own  mental  and  spiritual  conflicts  arising  out  of  his 
friends'  opposition,  of  the  family  dispeace  until  his  wife 
was  won  over  to  his  plans,  of  his  applications  to  the  king 
and  the  Mission  College  at  Copenhagen,  of  his  absolute 
resignation  of  his  parish  and  living,  of  his  three  years' 
pleading  with  the  bishop,  clergy,  and  merchants  of  Bergen 
to  organise  a  trading  expedition  to  Greenland,  and  of  his 
final  departure  in  May  1721  with  his  wife,  four  children, 
and  some  settlers,  provided  with  a  salary 
of  £45  a  year  from  the  king — reveals  to 
us  a  man  of  indomitable  zeal  and  cour- 
ageous faith.  Full  proof  of  these,  too, 
he  gave  during  his  fifteen  years'  sojourn 
on  the  west  coast  of  that  rigorous  and 
barren  land  of  his  banishment,  the 
home  of  the  white  bear  and  the  wild 
fowl.  The  Eskimos,  "those  who  eat 
Hans  Egede.  ^^^  ^^^j^^,,  showed  little  appreciation  of 
the  Gospel  preached  by  him  and  the  other  missionaries, 
yet  he  laboured  patiently  in  teaching  and  in  translating 
parts  of  the  Scriptures  into  their  language,  and  the  first 
convert,  Frederick  Christian,  was  baptized  in  1725.  The 
trade  of  the  colony,  however,  was  not  promising;  the 
colonists  murmured  against  him,  and  some  of  them  proved 
a  reproach ;  they  were  at  times  on  the  verge  of  starvation 
through  the  delay  of  the  home  supplies ;  and  a  smallpox 
epidemic  carried  away  all  but  three  of  200  Eskimo 
families.  Orders  were  issued  for  the  withdrawal  of 
the  colony,  and  only  Egede,  with  a  few  others,  were 
left.  His  wife  died  in  1735,  and  next  year,  with  health 
sadly  impaired,  he  sailed  for  Copenhagen,  where  the  king 
made  him  superintendent  of  an  institution  for  training 


EARLIER  CALLS  THROUGH  EMPIRE 


61 


missionaries  for  Greenland.  Little  missionary  success  was 
given  him,  but  the  work  continued  through  his  son  and 
others.  All  the  Danish  Eskimos  are  now  Christian,  and 
it  was  Egede  who  laid  the  foundation  of  Godthaab,  or 
God's  haven,  the  capital  of  the  modern  Christian  colony. 
He  lived  to  see  still  greater  fruits  of  his  labours  and 
influence  through  the  missionary  activity  of  the  Moravian 
Church,  which  we  are  now  to  trace. 


The  Seal  of  the  Corporation  for  promoting  the 
Gospel  in  New  England,  1C61. 
The  chief  figure  is  evidently  intended  to  represent  a  North  American  Indian 
pointing  to  a  large  closed  Bible  in  his  left  hand.  To  the  right  of  the 
picture  the  shore  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  with  an  Indian  paddling  a  canoe, 
appears  to  be  represented ;  while  to  the  left  the  British  oak  and  the 
American  pine  seem  to  be  portrayed. — Note  by  W.  M.  Venning,  D.C.L,, 
Clerk  of  the  Company. 


The  Moravian  Home-Land. 


CHAPTER  V 


A   MISSIONAEY    CHURCH 


When  Luther  nailed  his  Theses  to  the  church  door  at 
Wittenberg  there  were  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia  400 
congregations  with  200,000  members  of  the  Ancient  Unity 
of  the  Brethren,  the  disciples  of  Huss,  that  "Reformer 
before  the  Reformation  "  (martyred  1415) ;  but  a  cruel  and 
relentless  persecution  by  Church  and  State  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventeenth  century  almost  exterminated  them. 
The  last  of  their  bishops,  Comenius,  fleeing  into  Poland  in 
1628,  prayed  as  he  crossed  the  frontier  that  God  would 
maintain  a  seed  to  serve  Him.  "  The  hidden  seed  "  was 
indeed  marvellously  preserved,  and  in  1717  it  was  quick- 
ened by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Christian  David,  a  converted 
village  carpenter,  himself  not  a  member  of  the  United 
Brethren,  was  instrumental  under  God  in  bringing  about 
the  awakening  among  the  Protestants  of  Bohemia.  Learn- 
ing that  a  safe  asylum  might  be  found  in  Saxony,  on 
the  estate  of  Count  Zinzendorf  at  Berthelsdorf,  he,  mth 
nine  others,  secretly  left  his  Moravian  village  under  cover 
of  night  •  and  when,  on  17th  June  1722,  his  axe  felled  the 


A  MISSIONARY  CHURCH  63 

first  tree  of  their  new  settlement,  called  Herrnhut,  oi 
"watch  of  the  Lord,"  he  fixed  the  site  of  one  of  the 
great  classic  centres  of  Christian  life  and  work,  the  seat 
of  what  is  popularly  known  as  the  Moravian  Church. 

In  Count  Zinzendorf  the  exiles  found  a  benefactor 
wonderfully  prepared  of  God.  His  grandfather,  the  repre- 
sentative of  one  of  the  most  ancient  noble  families  in 
Austria,  had  also  left  his  fatherland  for  conscience'  sake. 
Spener,  the  founder  of  the  Pietists,  stood  sponsor  at  his 
baptism  (1700),  and  he  was  nurtured  in  tlic  utmosphere 
of  Pietism.  Before  he  was  six 
years  old  he  had  made  the  coven- 
ant, "  Be  Thou  mine,  dear  Saviour, 
and  I  will  be  Thine."  His  school 
days  were  spent  at  Halle,  under 
Francke,  who,  then  busied  Avith 
the  Tranquebar  Mission,  no  doubt 
sowed  in  his  mind  the  seeds  of 
those  mission  thoughts  which  bore 
such  abundant  fruit.  At  fifteen 
(in    1715,    the    year    of    Ziegen- 

balg's    visit)      he     founded     "The  Count  Zinzendokf. 

Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mustard  Seed,"  whose  members  were, 
among  other  things,  23ledged  to  seek  the  conversion  of 
Jews  and  heathen,  and  whose  first  article  was  "The 
members  of  our  Society  will  love  the  whole  human  race." 
Another  youthful  covenant  with  a  like-minded  friend, 
Baron  von  Watte ville,  was  of  prophetic  imj)ort  in  its 
reference,  "Especially  to  such  heathen  as  nobody  else 
would  regard."  Nor  must  his  marriage  covenant  be  for- 
gotten, under  which  his  wife  and  he  stood  ready,  "  with 
l)ilgrim's  staff  in  hand,  to  go  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
heathen,"  if  such  were  the  Lord's  will ;  and  it  was  while 
he  was  absent  on  his  marriage  tour  that  there  reached 
his   estate   Christian   David  and  his  comrades,  in  whom 


64  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

Zinzendorf  recognised  "  the  parisli  destined  for  him  from 
eternity." 

To  this  shelter  at  Berthelsdorf  came  the  persecuted 
from  many  lands.  A  hard  colony  it  was  to  manage,  from 
its  variety  of  elements,  but  a  revival  in  1727  helped  to 
weld  these  together.  In  1732,  when  Foreign  Mission 
work  was  definitely  undertaken  by  them,  the  community 
consisted  of  six  hundred  souls,  old  and  young. 

It  was  a  visit  by  Count  Zinzendorf  to  Copenhagen  on 
the  occasion  of  the  coronation  of  his  relative,  Christian 
VI.,  that  gave  direction  to  the  mission  thoughts  which 
had  been  in  the  minds  of  the  Herrnhuters.  Among  the 
gay  crowd  was  Anthony,  a  negro  from  St.  Thomas,  a 
Danish  island  in  the  "West  Indies,  and  through  him  came 
the  Macedonian  call  to  Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians. 
Anthony,  who  had  been  seeking  after  God,  and  had  been 
baptized  at  Copenhagen,  afterwards  visited  Herrnhut  and 
pleaded  the  cause  of  the  negro  slaves,  and  especially  of  his 
sister,  who  had  shared  in  his  spiritual  longings.  The 
Spirit's  message  to  the  Church  was  to  separate  Leonhard 
Dober,  a  potter,  and  Tobias  Leupold  for  this  work.  With 
what  brave,  simple,  true  words  did  Dober  plead  to  be 
sent !  "  I  determined  if  only  one  brother  would  go  with 
me  to  the  West  Indies,  I  would  give  myself  up  to  be  a 
slave,  and  would  tell  the  slaves  as  much  of  the  Saviour 
as  I  knew  myself.  ...  I  leave  my  proposal  in  the  hands 
of  the  congregation,  and  have  no  other  reason  to  urge  it 
but  this,  that  there  are  souls  in  the  island  that  cannot 
believe  because  they  have  not  heard."  After  a  year's 
hesitation  and  deliberation  on  the  part  of  the  congrega- 
tion, lots  were  cast,  and  proved  favourable  to  Dober, 
though  unfavourable  to  Leupold,  who,  however,  followed 
later.  With  but  a  few  shillings  in  their  pockets  and  a 
bundle  on  their  backs,  Dober  and  a  travelling  companion, 
Nitschman,  set  out  to  beg  for  a  passage  to  St.  Thomas, 


A  MISSIONARY  CHURCH  65 

as  Egede  had  done  fourteen  years  before  when  trying  to 
find  his  way  to  Greenland ;  and,  like  him,  receiving  help 
and  encouragement  from  the  Danish  royal  family  (never 
to  be  forgotten  in  Mission  history),  they  set  sail  on  8th 
October  1732  for  St.  Thomas. 

From  Greenland's  icy  mountains, 

too,  did  the  call  come  to  the  Moravians  at  that  coronation 
ceremony  through  two  of  Egede's  converts  who  were 
present.  The  sight  of  them  greatly  impressed  Zinzendorf, 
especially  in  view  of  the  proposed  abandonment  of  the 
Danish  Mission,  and  on  his  return  to  Herrnhut  he  un- 
burdened his  mind  to  the  brethren.  Again  the  Spirit 
touched  simultaneously  the  hearts  of  two  young  men, 
Matthew  Stach  and  Frederick  Bonisch,  who,  while  at 
their  work  in  the  grounds,  "  believing  with  all  simplicity 
in  the  promise  to  two  or  three,  .  .  .  knelt  down  by  the 
next  brushwood  and  begged  we  would  be  guided  to  do 
right."  Stach  and  his  cousin  Christian,  "with  nothing 
but  the  clothing  on  our  backs,"  were  the  first  to  start, 
having  received  as  their  guiding  principle  the  command 
"in  all  things  to  follow  the  spirit  of  Christ."  Said  a 
high  official.  Count  Pless,  to  them  at  Copenhagen,  "  How 
do  you  propose  to  procure  food  in  Greenland ? "  "By  the 
labour  of  our  hands  and  God's  blessing.  We  will  build 
us  a  house  and  cultivate  the  land."  "But,"  objected  the 
Count,  "there  is  no  wood  to  build  with."  "Then  we 
will  dig  in  the  earth  and  lodge  there."  The  answers  led 
to  a  gift  from  the  Count,  and  the  persistent  faith  of  the 
men  ended  in  their  sailing  to  Greenland  in  April  1733. 

Lo  !  through  ice  and  snow  we  press, 
One  poor  soul  for  Christ  to  gain. 

Glad  we  bear  want  or  distress 
To  set  forth  tlie  Lamb  once  slain. 

Thus  were  the  Moravians,  when  they  were  but  a  feeble 
5 


66  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

folk,  led  to  be  the  pioneers  among  the  churches  of  the 
Reformation  in  undertaking  missions  to  the  heathen,  and 
no  church  has  come  nearer  to  the  missionary  spirit  and 
methods  of  the  first  century.  Very  suggestive  is  their  Epis- 
copal seal,  "  Our  Lamb  has  won ;  let 
us  follow  Him."  As  we  trace, — in 
outline  it  must  be, — the  story  of  the 
various  early  efforts  made  by  the 
Brethren,  we  shall  find  in  them  the 
impress  of  the  life  and  ideas  of  the 
good  Count  Zinzendorf,  who  for 
Seal  OF  twenty -three    years    (from    1737    till 

Moravian  Church.         J^is    death    in   1760)  WaS  the  bishop  OF 

superintendent  of  the  church.  Years  before  the  missions 
were  started  he  had  sung  that  "  Herrnhut  or  stands  or 
falls,"  according  as — ■ 

We  ever  ready  prove 

To  be  scattered  far  and  wide, 

A  salt  to  fertilise  the  earth. 

No  wonder  that  the  Moravian  outlook  was  wide  as  the 
habitations  of  men,  seeing  that  it  was  guided  by  a  man 
who  could  say,  "The  whole  earth  is  the  Lord's;  men's 
souls  are  His  ;  I  am  debtor  to  all,"  or  again,  "  Henceforth 
that  place  is  my  home  where  I  can  have  the  greatest 
opportunity  of  labouring  for  my  Saviour."  Zinzendorf's 
methods  have  been  criticised  ;  he  has  been  called  excitable, 
eccentric,  and  wrong-headed;  perhaps  he  was  one-sided 
in  his  theological  opinions ;  but  there  he  stands  out  one 
of  the  most  notable  figures  in  the  history  of  missions, 
one  who  by  his  labours  and  his  sufferings  and  the  power 
of  his  noble  example  deserves  a  high  place  in  the  story  of 
the  missionary  expansion  of  the  Church.  As  statesman 
and  ecclesiastical  administrator,  as  poet  and  preacher,  he 
showed  himself  to  be  no  common  man. 


A  MISSIONARY  CHURCH  67 


Caribbean  Sea  and  Guiana 


Dober  and  Nitschman  sailed  to  the  Virgin  Islands,  part 
of  the  north-eastern  barrier  to  the  Caribbean  Sea.  What 
a  terrible  tale  that  sea  could  tell  of  the  infamous  doings 
of  the  representatives  of  the  nations  of  Europe  ! — the 
aborigines,  from  whom  it  took  its  name,  expelled  or 
exterminated  with  barbaric  cruelty  by  the  Spaniards; 
millions  of  negroes  from  ruined  African  villages  kidnapped 
to  take  their  places  and  fill  the  pockets  of  Continental  and 
British  slave-owners.  To  those  neglected,  down-trodden 
slaves  the  two  Brethren  went  in  1732 — long  before  the 
Anti-Slavery  agitation  of  Granville  Sharpe  and  Clarkson 
and  Wilberforce,  for  whom  indeed  they  were  preparing  the 
way.  They  carried  with  them  a  letter  of  introduction  to  a 
slave  woman,  Anthony's  sister,  in  whom  and  her  husband 
and  their  fellow-slaves  they  found  a  ready  audience  and 
their  first  converts— the  poor  people  clapping  their  hands 
with  joy  that  such  good  news  could  be  for  them.  Other 
missionaries  followed,  and  when  Zinzendorf  visited  St. 
Thomas  in  1739  he  found  that  the  movement  among  the 
slaves  had  awakened  the  intense  opposition  of  the  author- 
ities, and  that  the  missionaries  had  already  been  for  three 
months  in  prison  under  false  accusations.  The  next  day 
he  secured  their  release,  and  the  work  went  on,  although  it 
often  meant  bonds  and  stripes  for  the  negroes.  At  length 
the  slave-holders  began  to  see  that  a  Christian  slave  fetched 
a  higher  price  than  one  untaught.  In  the  neighbouring 
Danish  islands  of  Santa  Cruz  and  St.  John  there  was  a 
like  experience  of  light  and  shade.  Within  fifteen  years, 
fifty  missionaries  found  their  graves  on  two  of  the  islands, 
and  Zinzendorf  thus  commemorated  ten  of  them  who  died 
at  Santa  Cruz  : — 

Ten  here  are  laid,  like  a  forsaken  thing  : 

Nay,  from  this  seed  the  negro  race  shall  spring. 


68  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

In  1754  the  Moravians  began  to  evangelise  the  negroes  of 
the  British  West  Indian  Islands,  the  pioneer  missionaries 
to  Tobago  being  the  parents  of  James  Montgomery,  the 
poet.  At  the  centenary  of  the  Mission  to  Jamaica  the 
Moravians  had  over  26,000  baptized  Christians  among 
its  inhabitants.^ 

To  Guiana,  on  the  South  American  coast,  south  of  the 
Caribbean  Sea,  the  Brethren  were  early  called,  to  labour 
among  the  scattered  Arawack  and  other  Indian  tribes  and 
the  negroes,  free  and  enslaved.  In  1735  Lewis  Christopher 
Daehne,  with  a  companion,  left  for  Berbice.  It  is  of 
those  missionaries  Dr.  Brown  testifies,  "No  wilderness 
api^eared  to  them  too  frightful,  no  road  too  dreary,  no 
Indian  hut  too  remote,  if  they  might  hope  to  find  a  soul 
ready  to  receive  the  Gospel."  Various  calamities,  such 
as  famine,  plague,  and  a  rising  of  negroes,  put  an  end  to 
this  mission.  A  similar  fate  befell  the  stations  of  Sharon 
and  Hope,  in  Surinam  (Dutch  Guiana).  The  Govern- 
ment invited  the  Brethren  to  begin  a  mission  among  the 
Free  or  Bush  negroes,  runaway  slaves  collected  in  the 
interior,  who  were  a  constant  source  of  danger  to  the 
colony.  Brethren,  settled  at  Paranamaribo,  supported 
the  missionaries  in  the  interior  by  their  industry,  and 
began  among  the  negroes  a  work  which  is  still  flourishing. 

Up  to  the  year  1800  no  less  than  159  brethren  and 
sisters  were  employed  in  the  Guiana  missions.  Of  these 
75  died  in  the  country,  many  of  them  immediately  on 
their  arrival.  The  total  baptisms  up  to  1801  were  1645 
(Indians  855,  free  negroes  59,  negroes  and  mulattos  731). 

Arctic  Regions 

Christian  David  and  the  cousins  Stach  were  welcomed 
to   the   west    coast    of    Greenland    by   Egede,    and   the 

^  For  an  account  of  subsequent  efforts  in  the  West  Indies  and  Guiana 
see  Chapter  XII. 


A  MISSIONARY  CHURCH  69 

Brethren  soon  experienced  the  same  difficulties  as  that 
pioneer.  The  language  was  difficult ;  the  carnal  notions 
of  their  hearers  made  their  task  still  more  difficult ; 
the  habits  of  the  Eskimo  were  filthy ;  famine  and  plague 
decimated  the  inhabitants;  the  missionaries  themselves, 
who  had  to  live  largely  by  the  labours  of  their  own  hands, 
were  at  one  time  reduced  to  eating  raw  sea-weed ;  for  two 
years  no  word  from  the  mother  church  reached  New  Herrn- 
hut,  and  for  five  years  no  fruit  of  their  work  appeared. 
Notwithstanding  these  adverse  circumstances,  when  the 
advice  was  given  them  to  abandon  the  field  they  replied, 
"  God's  ways  are  not  man's  ways ;  He  that  called  us 
hither  can  still  accomplish  His  aim  by  us." 

Most  interesting  was  the  first  evidence  of  success. 
John  Beck  is  copying  out  a  translation  of  the  story  of 
Christ's  sufferings  and  death,  and  a  band  of  natives  from 
the  south  ask  him  what  is  in  the  book.  On  the  subject 
being  explained,  one  of  them  eagerly  asks,  "How  was 
that  1  Tell  me  that  once  more,  for  I  too  would  be  saved." 
The  old,  old  story  of  Jesus  and  His  love  broke  the  heart 
of  the  savage,  and  Kajarnak  afterwards  became  a  devoted 
Christian  and  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  When  dying 
three  years  later  he  comforted  his  friends  with  the  thought, 
"  You  know  that  I  am  the  first  of  you  that  was  converted 
by  our  Saviour,  and  now  it  is  His  will  that  I  should  be 
the  first  to  go  to  Him."  There  was  now  an  awakening 
among  many  of  the  Greenlanders,  and  the  missionaries 
discovered  that  it  was  more  profitable  to  begin  by  treating 
of  the  person  and  work  of  Christ  than  to  dwell  primarily 
upon  the  existence  of  God,  the  creation,  and  the  fall  of 
man.  Their  success  was,  no  doubt,  tempered  by  many 
disappointments  and  much  opposition  from  the  Angekoks 
or  sorcerers.  By  1750  they  had  under  their  influence 
at  New  Herrnhut  300  Greenlanders,  whom  they  taught 
to  work  as  well  as  to  pray.     The  village  became  a  model 


70  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

one;  pagan  and  cruel  customs  were  abandoned;  sheep 
and  various  new  products  were  introduced.  Fresh  settle- 
ments were  begun,  and  by  1801  the  last  Greenlander  in 
the  Moravian  field  was  baptized,  although  since  then  bands 
of  heathen  have  come  round  from  the  eastern  side.  Well 
might  Cowper  sing  of  those  missionaries  : — 

Fired  with  a  zeal  peculiar,  they  defy 
The  rage  and  vigour  of  a  Polar  sky, 
And  plant  successfully  sweet  Sharon's  rose 
On  icy  plains  and  in  eternal  snows. 

The  same  irony  that  named  Greenland  is  seen  in 
the  word  Labrador,  or  "cultivable,"  which  the  Portu- 
guese assigned  to  the  opposite  and  colder  though  more 
southern  shore  of  the  North  American  continent.  "  Twin 
sister  of  Greenland  "  it  is,  and  there  too  live  the  circum- 
polar  Eskimos,  one  of  the  so-called  "  refuse  races." 

The  English  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  obtained  a  grant 
of  the  land  as  far  back  as  1669,  but  had  confined  itself 
strictly  to  trade.  It  was  a  Dutch  Moravian  pilot,  John 
Christian  Ehrhardt,  who  first  sought  to  teach  the  Eskimo 
of  Christ,  having,  as  he  wrote,  "  an  amazing  affection  for 
those  northern  countries,  for  Indians  and  other  barbarians," 
with  whom  he  had  been  brought  into  contact  in  Greenland. 
The  first  party  landed  in  1752,  but  Ehrhardt  was  mur- 
dered, and  the  four  missionaries  had  to  abandon  the  attempt. 
The  story  of  Ehrhardt's  martyrdom  called  forth  the  chivalry 
of  a  Danish  carpenter,  Jens  Haven,  who  first  visited  Labra- 
dor in  1764,  and  the  following  year  went  to  England  to 
beg  successfully  for  a  grant  of  land  from  Government. 
The  first  station  was  founded  at  Nain  in  1771.  No 
one  was  baptized  till  1776.  Since  then  there  has  been 
considerable  success.  Schools  have  been  established, 
various  books  have  been  compiled,  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  part  of  the  Old  Testament  provided  by  the 


A  MISSIOXARY  CHURCH  71 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  In  Labrador  the 
Eskimos  are  now,  nominally  at  least,  a  Christian  people, 
and  the  vast  change  effected  has  been  more  than  once 
shown  in  a  practical  way  by  the  tender  care  with  which 
they      have      treated 

shipwrecked    crews —  ::.       '  J!i-_    ~\-z^^  -^ 

a  striking  contrast  to  k   ;"..    _«i?>;- 

former  times.  -  ^^"^ 

To  keep  up  com-    ;^     1]      ,  .  _ 

munication  with  those    -      A/ltfe...  .i  .  '     '  j:^:-^^-^"'^ 
isolated   workers,   the    £^^^^^^^^^^^^^P^  -: 

Mission  ship  has  made        J^r^^-  'rSt^^^^^*'^, 
its  annual    trip   with  ~    - -=us__  --' " - 

unfailing      regularity  ^^^  ^^''''''''  ^"^^  ^""'"'"'y- 

and  perfect  safety  for  127  years.  It  was  to  one  of  the 
predecessors  of  the  present  vessel  that  Montgomery  re- 
ferred in  the  lines  : — 

Along  her  single  track  she  braves 
Gulfs,  whirlwinds,  icebergs,  winds,  and  waves, 
To  waft  fflad  tidings  to  the  shore 
Of  long;intj  Labrador. 


North  Aynerican  Indians 

Where  the  Eskimos  ended  on  the  American  continent 
the  allied  race  of  the  red  man  began.  We  have  noticed 
the  efforts  made  for  the  New  England  Indians  in  the 
seventeenth  century  by  Eliot  and  the  Mayhews,  and  the 
work  of  the  Propagation  Society  in  Xew  York  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Nothing  daunted 
by  the  comparative  want  of  success  of  those  efforts, 
Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians  threw  themselves  with 
characteristic  zeal  into  the  evangelisation  of  the 
wandering  aborigines.  The  English  Trustees  offered 
them    a   tract    of    land    in    Georgia,    and    missionaries 


72  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

went  with  a  band  of  colonists  in  1735.  After  labour- 
ing among  the  Creek  Indians  for  three  years,  they 
withdrew  to  the  Quaker  colony  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
there  they  founded  in  1741  the  station  of  Bethlehem, 
still  the  Herrnhut  of  the  American  ]\Ioravians.  Henry 
Ranch  landed  at  New  York  in  1740  and  followed  two 
Moheecan  chiefs  to  Shekomeko,  near  the  confines  of 
Connecticut.  Those  two  "depraved  savages"  were 
converted,  and  one  of  them,  Tschoop,  became  a  noted 
preacher  of  the  Gospel.  When  Zinzendorf  visited  Sheko- 
meko in  1742  the  first  Christian 
Indian  congregation  was  formed 
with  39  baptized  natives.  This 
colony  was  broken  up  by  the 
New  York  Assembly,  which 
ordered  the  Moravians  to  desist 
from  teaching  the  Indians  and 
to  dej^art  from  the  Province. 

One  of  the  most  noted  of 
those  early  missionaries  was 
David  Zeisberger,  the  apostle 
of  the  DelaAvares,  who  from 
1745,  when  he  w^as  imprisoned  for  two  months  on 
the  suspicion  of  being  a  French  spy,  till  his  death  in 
1808,  endured  perils  and  privations  and  difficulties  such 
as  few  missionaries  of  the  Cross  have  ever  had  to  bear. 
He  identified  himself  so  closely  with  the  Iroquois  or  Six 
Nations  as  to  be  enrolled  in  one  of  their  clans,  and  by  his 
great  literary  labours  did  more  than  any  other  man  of  his 
century  for  the  languages  of  the  Iroquois  and  Delawares. 
Many  a  time  was  he  compelled  to  lead  on  his  poor, 
persecuted  Indian  flock,  driven  forward  by  the  hatred  of 
heathen  Indians  or  the  rapacity  of  white  settlers.  The 
Christian  Indians,  almost  always  neutral  in  the  disputes, 
fared  badly  in  the  fierce  struggle  for  the  possession  of  the 


A  MISSIOXARY  CHURCH  73 

land.  Tiie  settlement  at  Gnadenhuetten,  Pennsylvania, 
was  specially  afflicted.  In  November  1755  the  savage 
tribes,  who  were  in  league  with  the  French,  burned  the 
station  and  butchered  ten  of  the  twelve  persons  belonging 
to  the  missionaries'  households.  ]5ut  more  terrible  even 
than  that  was  the  massacre  in  March  1782,  just  after  the 
close  of  the  War  of  Independence.  A  band  of  American 
citizens  of  the  Pennsylvania  Mounted  Volunteer  Militia, 
with  a  duplicity  not  surpassed  by  the  Massacre  of  Glencoe, 
and  with  a  brutality  equalling  that  of  the  infamous  Nana 
Sahib  at  Cawnpore,  fell  upon  the  unsuspecting  native 
Christians,  butchered  ninety -six  of  them  in  cold  blood, 
including  twenty-seven  women  and  thirty-four  children, 
and  set  fire  to  what  they  gloried  in  describing  as  the 
"slaughter  houses."  ^  Even  those  "white"  murderers 
acknowledged  their  victims  to  be  good  Indians,  "  for  they 
sang  and  prayed  to  their  last  breath."  Still  the  heroic 
Moravians  clung  to  the  poor  remnant  of  Christian 
Delawares,  and,  after  years  of  painful  wanderings,  found 
for  them  a  resting-place  at  Fairfield,  in  Canada,  in  1792. 
Even  this  station  was  plundered  by  the  Americans  in  the 
war  of  1813,  but  it  and  other  stations  are  still  continued 
for  the  poor  red  man. 

From  1740  to  1787  nineteen  stations  in  all  were 
founded,  and  by  1792  twelve  hundred  Indians  were 
baptized.  This  work,  like  all  efforts  for  the  Indians, 
suffered  from  the  peculiar  and  painful  circumstances  of 
the  tribes,  but  without  doubt  the  devoted  workers  exerted 
a  great  influence  for  good. 

South  Africa 

When  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau  called  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  on  the  way  to  India  in  1706  they  were  dis- 
tressed to  find  that  the  Dutch,  whose  colony  it  had  been 

1    See  note  a,  p.  xvL 


74  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

since  1652,  refused  to  allow  their  slaves  to  be  baptized, 
and  the  published  account  of  this  moved  two  Amsterdam 
gentlemen  to  seek  the  help  of  the  Moravians  on  their 
behalf.  Seven  days  after  the  arrival  of  the  letter  at 
Herrnhut,  the  appeal  was  answered  in  person  by  George 
Schmidt,  the  pioneer  missionary  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
South  Africa,  bearing  then,  as  he  did  to  his  dying  day,  the 
marks  of  six  years'  imprisonment  for  conscience'  sake  in 
Bohemia.  On  9th  July  1737  he  arrived  at  Cape  Town  amid 
the  scorn  and  derision  of  the  Dutch,  to  whom  the  Koi  Koin, 
or  Hottentots,  were  useful,  as  were  their  beasts  of  burden. 

"  Hottentots  and  dogs 
forbidden  to  enter " 
was  the  notice  over  one 
church  door  of  these 
Boers,  albeit  so  ortho- 
dox and  careful  of  re- 
ligious forms.  Yet  from 
among  that  outcast  race 
who,  with  the  Bushmen, 

Schmidt  teaching  Agriculture  OCCUpy  the  lowest  place 

TO  THE  Hottentots.  -^      ^^le     civilisation     of 

Africa — the  slaves  of  the  Dutch  and  the  despised  and 
oppressed  of  the  negroes  and  Bantus  —  some  were 
elected  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  first,  Willem, 
baptized  in  a  Avayside  stream  in  1742,  was  not  only 
the  first  Hottentot,  but  also  the  first  African,  convert  of 
the  Reformed  Church.  By  1744  there  was  a  congrega- 
tion of  eighty-seven  at  the  station  on  the  Zondereinde  (a 
tributary  of  the  Brede),  eighty  miles  east  of  Cape  Town. 
The  Dutch  became  alarmed  and  prohibited  the  baptism  of 
natives,  and  as  the  presence  of  George  Schmidt  was  un- 
welcome and  a  menace  to  their  imagined  interests,  they 
forbade  him  the  colony. 

The  mission  was  not  renewed  till  1792  at  "  Bavian's 


A  MISSIONARY  CHURCH  75 

Kloof."  The  three  Brethren  who  went,  unexpectedly  found 
it  to  be  the  very  spot  occupied  by  Schmidt.  His  great  pear 
tree  was  still  standing,  and,  yet  more  interesting,  one  of  his 
converts,  an  old  blind  woman,  Magdalene,  came  forward  with 
a  Dutch  New  Testament  she  had  got  from  him  and  had 
carefully  preserved.  Immediate  success  followed  the  work 
of  the  missionaries,  and  five  years  afterwards  there  were 
eighty-four  baptized  Christians,  with  a  large  number  under 
instruction.  Again  the  Boers  opposed,  even  to  the  length 
of  contriving  a  plot  for  the  murder  of  the  missionaries, 
but  it  was  discovered  by  the  British,  who  held  the  Cape 
from  1795  to  1803,  prior  to  their  definite  possession  in  1815. 
The  work  prospered.  The  name  "Bavian's  Kloof"  was 
changed  to  Genadendal,  "Vale  of  Grace,"  and  by  the  time 
of  its  Jubilee  in  1842,  almost  4000  had  been  baptized. 
Efforts  were  also  made  to  reach  the  Bushmen,  that  wander- 
ing pigmy  race  inferior  to  the  Hottentot,  and  at  the  very 
foot  of  the  human  scale.  They  were  treated  as  beasts  of 
prey  by  the  Dutch,  who  from  1754  had  yearly  commandos 
(or  armed  raids  of  Boers  under  orders  from  a  Provincial 
Magistrate)  to  hunt  them  in  order  to  get  women  and 
children  for  service.  In  1774  the  Colonial  Government 
even  ordered  the  whole  race  not  already  in  servitude  to  be 
seized  or  extirpated.  Yet  from  among  those  people,  too, 
converts  were  received  at  Genadendal.  Nor  did  the 
Moravians  neglect  the  Kafirs  (a  name  meaning  "unbeliever," 
applied  by  the  Mohammedans  to  the  Bantu  races).  For 
them  Enon  and  other  stations  have  been  established  in 
the  east  of  Cape  Colony. 

The  work  begun  in  such  trying  circumstances  among 
people  thought  to  be  irreclaimable  has  been  continued 
throughout  this  century,  and  to-day  the  Moravians  are 
represented  in  South  Africa  by  missionaries  at  20 
stations  and  11  out-stations,  with  13,002  people  under 
their  pastoral  care. 


76  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

Many  other  missions,  afterwards  abandoned,  did  the 
Moravians  attempt  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Such  were 
those  to  the  Parsis  of  Persia,  to  Ceylon,  the  East  Indies, 
Tranquebar,  and  the  Nicobar  Islands,  to  the  Calmuc 
Tartars,  to  China,  Egypt,  Algiers,  and  the  Guinea  Coast. 
The  story  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  a  record  of  similar 
devotion  to  peojjles  and  places  deemed  by  many  to  be 
impracticable — ^for  example,  to  the  degraded  aborigines  of 
Australia  and  the  abodes  of  snow  on  the  Tibetan  frontier; 
and  nothing  could  be  more  eloquent  of  the  spirit  which 
still  animates  them  than  their  latest  enterprise,  the  LejDer 
Home  beyond  the  Jaffa  gate  of  Jerusalem. 

We  have  done  nothing  more  than  hint  at  the  heroic 
labours  of  the  early  Moravian  apostles,  the  pioneers  of 
more  than  2000  whom  that  little  village  of  Herrnhut  sent 
out  during  165  years.  Scholars  and  men  great  in  the 
world's  estimation  have  not  been  wanting  in  their  ranks, 
but  the  great  majority  of  them  have  been  very  humble  men 
and  women,  often  supporting  themselves  by  the  labour 
of  their  own  hands.  No  nobler  and  truer  soldiers  of 
the  Cross,  however,  have  gone  forth  to  the  battle  of  the 
Lord,  and  very  few  of  them  have  proved  failures  in 
their  Christian  life.  Their  humble  position  has  on  occa- 
sion been  a  subject  of  ridicule.  For  example,  a  trader 
tried  to  persuade  one  of  Rauch's  Indian  converts  who 
had  been  saved  from  drunkenness  that  the  Brethren 
were  not  privileged  teachers.  "It  may  be  so,"  was  the 
unanswerable  reply,  "  but  I  know  what  they  have  told  me 
and  what  God  has  wrought  within  me.  Look  at  my  poor 
countrymen  there  lying  drunk  before  your  door  !  Why  do 
you  not  send  privileged  teachers  to  convert  them  ? "  In 
the  midst  of  persecution  and  slander  their  motto  has  been 
"  Remain  silent  and  wait  upon  God,"  an  attitude,  no  doubt, 
strengthened  by  that  petition  from  their  Litany,  "  From 
the  unhappy  desire  of  becoming  great,  preserve  us,  gracious 


A  MISSIONARY  CHURCH  77 

Lord  and  God."  A  distinguislied  writer  on  missions,  who 
does  not  usually  spare  criticism,  has  said,  "  If  I  wished  to 
praise  a  missionary  I  should  say  that  he  is  worthy  of  being 
a  Moravian." 

It  has  sometimes  been  objected  that  the  Moravians  go  to 
the  wrong  places,  where  they  have  to  endure  unnecessary 
hardships,  and  to  the  wrong  races,  to  peoples  who  are  de- 
graded or  fast  dying  out.  But  while  this  criticism  does  not 
apply  to  all  their  fields  of  labour,  these  are  exactly  the  con- 
siderations which  weigh  with  them  in  going  out  into  the 
world's  highways  and  hedges.  "If  we  have  been  cast  out 
and  rendered  homeless,  it  must  be  the  Divine  will  that  we 
shall  become  the  ambassadors  of  the  Master,  who  had  not 
where  to  lay  His  head."  They  believe  that  the  most 
abject  and  most  remote  "are  within  the  line  of  that 
covenant  which  embraces  the  ends  of  the  earth."  They 
have  been  called  the  leaders  of  the  forlorn  hope  of 
evangelisation.  While  not  minimising  the  importance  of 
evangelising  the  higher  and  more  aggressive  races,  they 
think  they  have  a  special  genius  for  reaching  those 
neglected  peoples,  and  the  fact  that  a  race  seems  to  be  dying 
out  is  to  them  precisely  the  argument  for  urgency.  They 
look  not  so  much  at  the  race  as  the  individual  soul.  The 
consumptive  member  of  the  family,  wasting  away  on  his 
sick-bed,  receives  the  most  tender  care,  and  the  Moravians 
would  apply  this  principle  to  the  whole  human  family. 
They  have  proved  incontestably  that  no  people  are  so 
sunken  in  the  scale  of  humanity  that  they  cannot  be 
reached  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  We  do  not  admit  that 
they  have  been  wrong,  but  even  though  they  had  been, 
surely  theirs  has  been  a  "  magnificent  blunder,"  one  in- 
finitely more  significant  in  the  missiqnary  world  than  the 
brilliant  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  in  another  sphere. 
Generation  after  generation  of  them  go  out  to  the  great 
fight,  nothing  daunted  by  the  hardships  and  death  of  their 


78  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

predecessors,  and  it  is  perhaps  a  unique  experience  in  the 
history  of  missions  to  find  members  of  the  same  family 
through  six  successive  generations  evangelising  among  the 
red  men  of  North  and  South  America. 

The  Moravian  Church  survived  the  deadening  ration- 
alism of  the  eighteenth  century  largely,  we  believe,  be- 
cause of  its  missionary  spirit,  and  its  example  did  much 
to  encourage  the  present  missionary  activity  of  the 
Churches.  Nor  is  it  even  now  unworthy  of  emulation  by 
the  rest  of  Christendom.  As  one  of  themselves  has  said,  they 
"  early  realised  that  the  business  of  a  Christian's  life  is  not 
to  become  one  of  a  select  coterie,  a  clique  banded  together 
to  luxuriate  selfishly  in  the  enjoyment  of  personal  religion, 
but  that  the  express  commands  of  the  Lord  and  the  needs 
of  the  times  demand  the  most  strenuous  efforts  for  the 
evangelisation  of  the  world  and  the  furtherance  of  Christ's 
kingdom."  To-day  the  membership  of  these  churches  is, 
in  the  three  provinces  of  Germany,  England,  and  America, 
36,950  in  156  congregations,  and  that  of  the  Mission 
churches  nearly  three  times  as  large.  One  in  every  sixty  of ' 
their  communicants  is  a  missionary  to  the  heathen,  and  the 
whole  Church  may  be  said  to  be  missionary.  "  The  Unity 
of  the  Brethren  and  missions  are  inseparably  connected. 
There  is  never  a  church  of  the  Brethren  without  a  mission 
to  the  heathen,  nor  a  mission  of  the  Brethren  which  is  not 
the  affair  of  the  church  as  such."  The  place  which 
missions  have  in  the  heart  of  that  Church  is  seen  in  the 
beautiful  prayer  for  their  Sunday  morning  service : — 

Thou  Light  and  Desire  of  all  nations, 

Watch  over  Thy  messengers  both  by  land  and  sea  ; 

Prosper  the  endeavours  of  all  Thy  servants  to  spread  Thy  Gospel 
among  heathen  nations  ; 

Accompany  the  word  of  their  testimony  concerning  Thy  atone- 
ment, with  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power  ; 

Bless  our  congregations  gathered  from  among  the  heathen  ; 

Keep  them  as  the  apple  of  Thine  eye  ; 


A  MISSIONARY  CHURCH 


79 


Have  mercy  on  Thy  ancient  Covenant  people,  the  Jews 

Deliver  them  from  their  blindness  ; 

And  bring  all  nations  to  the  saving  knowledge  of  Thee  : 

Let  tJie  seed  of  Israel  ^^raise  the  Lord : 

Yea,  let  all  the  nations  praise  Him ; 
Give  to  Thy  people  open  doors  to  preach  the  Gospel, 
them  to  Thy  praise  on  earth.     Amen. 


and  set 


New  Hkkrxhut  in  Greenland. 
From  Crantz's  History  of  Greenland  (1820). 


CHAPTER  YI 

ON    THE    THRESHOLD    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUPwY 

The  Great  Missionary  Uprising 

The  present  century  of  world-wide  missions  was  definitely 
inaugurated  in  1792,  when  the  Baptist  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation was  formed  at  Kettering.  Hitherto  missionary 
efi'orts  had  been  comparatively  few.  We  have,  indeed, 
had  cause  to  admire  the  small  Moravian  Church  reaching 
and  maintaining  a  high  level  of  missionary  enthusiasm 
and  self-sacrifice ;  we  have  noticed  the  earlier  endeavours 
of  the  Dutch,  which  had,  however,  been  largely  ruined 
by  worldly  methods  and  formal  conversions,  and  had 
already  proved  to  be  failures ;  we  have  followed  the 
devoted  band  who  under  English,  Scottish,  and  American 
auspices  sought  the  salvation  of  the  red  and  the  black 
men  of  the  New  World,  but  the  fruits  of  whose  labours 
were  sadly  marred  by  the  war  complications  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  we  have  seen  the  Danes 
and  the  Germans,  assisted  by  the  Societies  for  Promoting 
Christian    Knowledge    and  for    Propagating   the   Gospel, 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       81 

attacking    the    "colossal    and    compact    social    system   of 

Hinduism."     Individuals  there  were  here  and  there  upon 

whose  hearts  the  cause  of  the  heathen  lay  heavy.     Chief 

among  them  was  Dr.  Coke,  according  to  Southey  the  Xavier 

of  ]yIethodism,  who  as  early  as  1769  had  helped  to  send  an 

unsuccessful  industrial  band,  consisting  of  a  surgeon  and 

a    party   of  mechanics,   to  the   Foulahs   of  West  Africa, 

and  who,  on  his  second  visit  to 

America  in  1786,  was  driven  by 

stress  of    weather  to  Antigua  in 

the  West  Indies.     A  work  among 

the  slaves  of  that  island,  begun 

by  Nathaniel  Gilbert,  the  Speaker 

of  the  Assembly,  and   continued 

by  two   negresses,   and  later  by 

a  shipwright,  John    Baxter,  was 

£ireatly  extended  through  the  in- 

defatigable  exertions  of  Coke  ;  and 

on  Wesley's  death  in  1791   there  were,    writes   Southey, 

about  6000  persons  enrolled  in  the  Connection,  of  whom 

two-thirds  were  negroes. 

Yet  those  combined  efforts,  scattered  and  loosely  organ- 
ised, were  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  great  unevangelised 
"  regions  beyond."  China,  Japan,  and  Central  Asia  were 
closed  ;  the  work  in  India  was  confined  to  the  south  coast, 
with  the  single  excei)tion  of  that  of  Kiernander  at  Calcutta  ; 
Africa  was  still  enveloped  in  darkness ;  the  isles  of  the 
Pacific  were  just  being  discovered.  Four  Societies  repre- 
sented the  combined  efforts  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
1792.  They  had  barely  190  labourers  ( 1 37  of  them  being 
Moravians  and  many  of  the  others  rather  colonial  ministers 
than  missionaries  to  non-Christians) ;  and  among  the  mis- 
sionaries there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a  single  repre- 
sentative of  the  British  Churches  who  was  sent  exchisively 
to  evangelise  among  the  millions  outside  of  Christendom, 

6 


82 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


With  the  bright  example  of  the  Moravians  before  them 
it  is  strange  that  the  other  Churches  were  so  slow  to  move. 
The  cause,  however,  is  not  hard  to  discover.  The  missionary 
spirit  can  only  exist  in  an  atmosphere  of  faith,  and  that 
was  certainly  awanting  during  the  greater  part  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  The  life  of  the  British  Churches  had  sunk 
to  a  low  level,  and  indifference  and  infidelity  were  rampant. 
Rationalism  abounded  in  the  Continental  Churches.  Under 
the  influence  of  such  men  as  Hume  and  Gibbon,  Voltaire 

and  Paine,  the  question  was 
not  one  of  expansion  into 
heathen  countries  so  much 
as  the  existence  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Europe  itself. 

Simultaneously  Avith  this 
anti  -  missionary  influence, 
there  had  been  going  on 
since  the  earlier  half  of  the 
century  a  movement  which 
was  to  contribute  towards  a 
marvellous  change.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  Reformation 
movement  and  of  the  mis- 
sionary activity  following  the 
Pietist  revival,  it  had  its  starting-point  in  a  quickening  of 
spiritual  life,  and  led,  under  Whitfield  and  the  Wesley s,  to 
"one  of  the  most  magnificent  revivals  of  the  Christian 
Church."  The  continuity  Avith  the  Pietist  movement  can 
be  traced  directly  through  the  Moravians,  contact  with 
whom  in  America  and  at  Herrnhut  proved  momentous  to 
John  Wesley  and  Methodism.  Whitfield  had  preached  on 
the  braes  of  Cambuslang  in  1742,  and  in  1744  certain 
ministers  who  had  been  influenced  during  the  revival 
entered  into  a  "  Concert  to  promote  abundant  application 
to  a  duty  that  is  perpetually  binding— prayer  that  our 


Whitfield. 
From  Tyerman's  Life  (Hodder  and 
Stouglitou). 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY      83 

God's  kingdom  may  come,  joined  with  praise,"  to  be  en- 
gaged in  by  all  every  Saturday  evening  and  Sunday  morning, 
and  with  special  prominence  on  the  first  Friday  of  every 
quarter.  The  Concert  had  far-reaching  missionary  con- 
sequences. A  memorial  was  sent  from  Scotland  to  Boston 
to  gain  the  co-operation  of  American  Christians,  and 
Jonathan  Edwards  was  stirred  by  it  to  WTite  in  1747  his 
"  Humble  attempt  to  promote  an  explicit  agreement  and 
visible  union  of  God's  people  in  extraordinary  prayer  for 
the  revival  of  religion  and  the  advancement  of  Christ's 
kingdom  in  the  earth."  This  treatise  in  its  turn  did  much 
to  give  a  missionary  direction  to  the  thoughts  of  the 
evangelical  leaders  of  the  Churches  of  Britain,  where  the 
formalism  and  deadness  were  giving  way  before  that  new 
spirit  of  aggressive  activity  prophetic  of  greater  things. 

In  every  department  of  life,  indeed,  there  was  towards 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  general  movement  of 
mind  betokening  that  the  "  fulness  of  time  "  had  come  for 
a  new  era.  Political  unrest  manifested  itself  in  many  lands. 
The  American  colonists,  under  George  Washington,  asserted 
their  independence  and  founded  the  great  English-speaking 
United  States,  and  the  down-trodden  French  had  their 
terrible  revenge  in  the  bloody  Revolution.  That  "un- 
wearied, unostentatious,  and  inglorious  crusade  against 
slavery  "  which  was  being  carried  on  by  those  who  were 
also  leaders  in  the  missionary  crusade  resulted  in  what 
Mr.  Lecky  terms  one  of  the  "three  or  four  perfectly 
virtuous  acts  recorded  in  the  history  of  nations."  The 
foundations  of  the  great  industries  were  being  laid  by  the 
invention  of  the  spinning  jenny  and  cotton  gin,  and  the 
steam  engine  was  the  forerunner  of  a  world-wide  commerce 
for  which  new  markets  were  being  opened  by  exjjlorers 
and  at  the  same  time  new  doors  for  the  Gosi)el.  The  im- 
agination of  the  l^jritish  i)eople  was  touched  by  the  South 
Sea  discoveries  of  Captain  Cook   who  was  killed  in  1779 


84 


MISSIONAKY  EXPANSION 


by  the  Kanaka  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  the  story  of 
whose  voyages  and  contact  with  hordes  of  savages  proved  a 
chief  element  in  developing  a  missionary  conscience.  In 
India,  too,  events  Avere  occurring  to  produce  a  like  effect. 
The  battle  of  Plassey  (1757)  changed  the  East  India 
Company  from  a  trading  associa- 
tion into  a  great  political  power. 
This  had  a  twofold  influence. 
On  the  one  hand  it  awakened 
an  ever-deej^ening  feeling  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  natives  on 
the  part  of  Britain,  as  shown 
by  the  keen  criticism  directed  by 
Wilberforce  and  others  to  the 
terms  of  the  Company's  charter 
when  it  fell  to  be  renewed  by 
Parliament  in  1793.  On  the 
other  hand  the  Company,  which 
had  been  more  or  less  indifferent 
to  missions  in  its  trading  days, 
became  decidedly  hostile  under 
the  groundless  fear  of  political 
complications  arising  from  re- 
ligious teaching.  The  debates  on  the  renewal  of  the 
charter  of  1793  are  interesting,  according  to  Professor 
Seeley,  "  for  the  picture  they  present  of  the  phase  of  Anglo- 
Indian  life  when  it  was  brahminised,  when  the  attempt  was 
made  to  keep  India  as  a  kind  of  inviolate  paradise,  into 
w^iich  no  European,  and  especially  no  missionary,  should  be 
suffered  to  penetrate."  But  both  before  this  and  during  the 
next  twenty  years  many  counter -forces  were  at  work.  In 
India  a  band  of  civilians  and  pious  chaplains  prepared  the 
way  and  suggested  the  means  to  those  at  home.  Charles 
Grant,  the  Inverness  man  who  later  became  Chairman  of  the 
London  Board  of  Directors,  had,  with  his  brother-civilian 


Charles  Grant. 
Portrait  by  Sir  Henry  Raeburn, 

— in  the  Castle  at  Inverness. 
From  Dr.  George  Smith's  Tinive 
Indian  Statesmen  (John  Mui-ray). 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       85 

George  Udny  and  the  Rev.  David  Brown,  sent  to  Wilber- 
force  and  to  the  Rev.  Charles  Simeon  of  Cambridge  a  plan 
for  a  Bengal  mission,  with  eight  missionaries,  two  of  whom 
Grant  himself  was  to  support.  The  plan  bore  fruit  later  in 
the  foundation  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society.  But  it 
was  William  Carey  who  best  focussed  the  aspirations  of 
many  earnest  hearts  and  embodied  the  sjiirit  of  the  time. 

Of  humble  birth  w^as  this  epoch-making  man.  Born 
at  Paulerspury,  Northamptonshire,  in  1761,  he  was 
apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker  in  the  neighbouring  Hackle- 
ton  in  his  seventeenth  year,  and  eventually  succeeded 
to  the  business.  Nor  was  he  ever  ashamed  of  his 
origin.  "  Was  not  Dr.  Carey  once  a  shoemaker  ? "  asked  a 
General  at  Lord  Hastings'  table.  "  No,  sir,  only  a  cobbler," 
said  Dr.  Carey,  who  overheard  the  question.  The  lad, 
whose  own  opinion  of  his  merits  was  afterwards  expressed 
by  the  words,  "  /  can  plod,'"  already  gave  evidence  of  his 
hunger  for  books  and  power  of  observing  nature.  Pass- 
ing through  a  deep  s^^iritual  experience,  he  was  much 
helped  by  the  ministrations  of  Thomas  Scott,  the  comment- 
ator, and  by  1785  he  had  such  preaching  gifts  as  to  be 
sent  forth  by  the  Olney  Church  as  a  regular  preacher. 
He  attended  the  Association  of  Baptist  Ministers  of  North- 
amptonshire, which  had  in  1784  organised  a  monthly  hour 
of  prayer  for  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  "  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel  to  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  habit- 
able globe."  At  a  meeting  of  the  Association  about  1786 
Carey  had  proposed  as  the  subject  of  discussion  "  Is  not 
the  command  given  to  the  Apostles  to  teach  all  nations 
obligatory  on  all  succeeding  ministers  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  seeing  that  the  accom})anying  promise  was  of  equal 
extent  ? " — to  which  Mr.  John  Ryland,  senr.,  impulsively 
replied  that  "Certainly  nothing  could  be  done  before 
another  Pentecost,  when  an  effusion  of  miraculous  gifts, 
including  the  gift  of  tongues,   would  give  effect  to  the 


86  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

commission  of  Christ  as  at  the  first,"  and  he  pro- 
nounced Carey  "  a  most  miserable  enthusiast "  for  asking 
such  a  question.  Carey  became  jmstor  of  the  little  con- 
gregation at  Moulton  in  1787,  with  a  stipend  of  £15  a 
year,  and  had  to  eke  out  his  living  by  teaching  a  school 
and  cobbling.  Yet  it  was  in  the  midst  of  such  distracting 
cares  that  his  engrossing  thoughts  for  the  world's  salvation 
took  definite  shape.  Here  Andrew  Fuller  found  on  his 
shop  wall  a  large  home-made  map  of  the  world,  the  outline 
filled  in  with  statistics  of  jsopulation  and  religion  and 
other  information.  Here  was  written  that  work,  remark- 
able for  its  time,  An  Inquiry  into  the 
obligations  of  Christians  to  use  mea^is 
for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen.  In 
which  the  religious  state  of  the  different 
nations  of  the  world,  the  success  of 
former  undertakings,  are  considered  by 
William  Carey.  The  inquiry  closed 
with  the  practical  appeal  to  all  for 
united  prayer  and  a  donation  of  a 
Captain  Cook.  penny    a    week.       Three    main    in- 

FromKnighfs  Portrait,  fl^^nces  are  given  to  account  for 
Carey's  mission  thoughts.  Edwards's  Humble  Attempt 
emphasised  the  duty  ;  a  pamphlet  by  Andrew  Fuller,  The 
Gospel  worthy  of  all  Acceptation,  led  him  to  argue,  as 
against  the  spurious  Calvinistic  teaching  of  the  time,  that 
if  it  be  the  duty  of  all  to  believe,  it  follows  that  Christians 
have  a  duty  to  make  the  Gospel  known.  Captain  Cook's 
Voyages  round  the  World  showed  the  open  door,  and 
created  in  his  mind  the  desire  to  go  to  Otaheite. 

Carey  was  transferred  to  Leicester  Church  in  1789,  and 
it  is  said  that  never  during  his  pastorate  there  was  he 
known  to  pray  without  pleading  for  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  and  the  conversion  of  the  heathen.  True 
mission  work  without  prayer  is  impossible.     Every  mis- 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


sionary  society  has  been  prayed  into  existence,  and  the 
often-repeated  experience  that  he  who  prays  is  also  called 
to  go  was  exemplified  in  Carey's  case.  In  spite  of  much 
opposition,  even  from  liis  friends,  Carey's  enthusiastic  and 
powerful  pleadings,  backed  by  Fuller's  sympathy,  prevailed. 
He  was  one  of  the  preachers  when  the  Northamptonshire 
Association  met  at  Nottingham  in  1792,  and  preached  his 
famous  sermon  from  Isaiah  liv.  2,  3,  under  the  two  main 
heads  (now  a  classical  aphorism)  : — 

Attempt  ^"""^  *'""8'  for'"  «°'^- 
The  sermon  resulted  in  a  resolution  to  consider  a 
for  a  Foreign  Mission 
Association  at  their  next 
meeting  at  Kettering, 
where,  accordingly,  on 
2nd  October,  in  Widow 
Wallis's  back  parlour, 
w^as  formed  the  Baptist 
Missionary  Association 
by  twelve  ministers,  wdio 
there  and  then  sub- 
scribed the  sum  of 
XI 3  :  2  :  6,       according 

to    an     article    in     their  Hocse  at  Kettering. 

constitution  which  read,  "  As  such  an  undertaking  must 
needs  be  attended  with  expense,  we  agree  immediately 
to  open  a  subscription  for  the  above  purpose  and  to  re- 
commend it  to  others." 

The  field  for  which  Carey  volunteered  w^as  the  South 
Seas,  but  his  destination  was  changed  through  John 
Thomas,  an  intensely  earnest  but  unstable  man,  who  had 
himself  attempted  to  preach  to  the  Hindus  during  his 
voyages  to  India  while  a  ship's  surgeon  in  the  East  India 
Company's  service,  and  who  had  significantly  advertised 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


in  a  Calcutta  paper  "for  a  Christian  who  would  assist  in 
promoting  a  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  in  and  around 
Bengal."  The  attention  of  the  Association  was  drawn  to 
Thomas's  work  by  Carey,  and  it  was  resolved  to  appoint  him 
and  to  find  a  companion.  At  one  of  the  Committee  meet- 
ings Fuller,  the  secretary,  had  said,  after  reading  Thomas's 
account  of  the  country,  "  There  is  a  gold  mine  in  India,  but 
it  seems  almost  as  deep  as  the  centre  of  the  earth.  Who 
will  venture  to  explore  it  ? "  Carey,  turning  to  Sutcliff, 
Fuller,  and  Eyland,  replied,   "  I  will  venture  to  go  down, 

but  remember  that  you  must 
hold  the  ropes."  Carey's 
congregation  at  Leicester 
were  unwilling  to  lose  him, 
but,  as  was  remarked  by  a 
member,  "We  have  been 
praying  for  the  spread  of 
Christ's  kingdom  amongst 
the  heathen,  and  now  God 
requires  us  to  make  the  first 
sacrifice  to  accomplish  it." 
And  so  the  "consecrated 
cobbler"  (as  Sydney  Smith  once  sneeringly  called  him), 
with  his  unwilling  wife,  children,  and  John  Thomas,  sailed 
for  Calcutta  in  the  Danish  Indiaman,  the  Kron  Princess 
Maria,  on  13th  June  1793,  having  been  previously  turned 
out  of  a  British  East  Indiaman,  after  the  passage-money 
had  been  paid,  on  the  ground  of  their  being  "  unlicensed 
persons  "  ! 

The  example  and  writings  of  Carey  led  to  still  more 
extensive  missionary  activity  and  to  the  formation  of  other 
Associations.  The  reading  of  No.  1  of  the  Periodical 
Accounts  of  the  Baptist  Mission  influenced  Dr.  Ryland  of 
Bristol  and  others  to  form  an  Association  for  the  churches 
which  practised  infant  baptism.     A  missionary  appeal  by 


Carey,  Fuller,  Sutcliff,  Rylakd, 
AND  Pearce. 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       89 


Dr.  Haweis. 


Dr.  Bogiie  of  Gosport  in  tlie  newly-established  Evangelical 
Magazine  found  an  immediate  and  widespread  response  in 
England  and  Scotland.  In  the  same  magazine  a[)peared 
an  offer  of  ^"500  a  year  by  the  chap- 
lain of  the  celebrated  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  Dr.  Haweis,  who,  fasci- 
nated by  Cook's  voyages,  would 
himself  have  sent  tw^o  missionaries 
from  the  Countess's  College  in  Wales 
to  the  South  Seas  in  1787,  had  not 
difficulties  arisen  as  to  their  ordi- 
nation. The  result  was  a  meeting 
for  counsel  of  eight  ministers  of 
various  denominations,  and  this  led  to  the  formation,  on 
21st  September  1795,  of  "The  Missionary  Association," 
afterwards  called  "The  London  Missionary  Association."  ^ 

A  fundamental  principle 
was  "not  to  send  Pres- 
byterianism,  Independ- 
ency, or  Episcopacy,  or 
any  other  form  of  church 
order  and  government 
(about  wdiich  there  may 
be  difference  of  opinion 
among  serious  persons), 
but  the  glorious  Gospel 
of  the  blessed  God  to 
the  heathen."  At  the 
enthusiastic  series  of  pre- 
liminary meetings  there 
was  such  "  a  visible  union  of  ministers  and  Christians  of 
all  denominations  who  for  the  first  time,  forgetting  their 
party  prejudices  and  partialities,  assembled  in  the  same 
place,"  that  one  over  -  sanguine  preacher  declared  that 
^  Now  practically  the  Mission  of  the  Cougregatioual  Churches. 


M.S.  Ckntknahy  Medal. 


90  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

they  were  attending  "the  funeral  of  bigotry."  Captain 
Cook's  influence  decided  in  favour  of  the  South  Seas  as 
the  first  sphere,  and  Captain  James  Wilson,  a  man  con- 
verted after  an  almost  unparalleled  career  of  adventure 
as  a  seaman,  a  soldier  at  Bunker's  Hill,  and  a  chained 
captive  of  Hyder  Ali  in  India,  came  forward  with  an  off'er 
of  gratuitous  service.  He  was  appointed  captain  of  the 
little  mission  ship  Duf\  and  on  10th  August  1796,  with 
thirty  missionaries  (four  ordained  ministers,  twenty-five 
artisans,  and  a  surgeon)  and  a  pattern  crew  of  twenty,  he 
hoisted  the  mission  flag,  "  three  white  doves  with  olive 
branches  on  a  purple  field,"  and  set  sail  for  Tahiti,  the 
crew  singing  the  hymn, 

Jesus,  at  Thy  command, 
"We  launch  into  the  deep. 

The  missionary  wave  also  spread  in  Scotland,  where 
the  same  catholicity  of  feeling  prevailed,  and  an  addi- 
tional argument  was  found  in  the  need  of  the  Moravians, 
now  hampered  by  the  political  troubles  on  the  Continent. 
Dr.  Erskine  of  Greyfriars  presided  in  February  1796  at 
the  meeting  to  found  the  Edinburgh  (later  the  Scottish) 
Missionary  Society,  whose  first  secretary  was  the  Rev. 
Greville  Ewing,  assistant  to  Dr.  Innes  of  Lady  Glenorchy's 
Chapel.  Ministers  of  the  Secession  Church  were  equally 
interested,  as  they  were  also  in  the  Glasgow  Society,  founded 
almost  simultaneously  by  Dr.  Burns  of  the  Barony,  Mr. 
Pirie,  Dr.  Kidston,  and  others.  In  the  same  year  Eobert 
Haldane,  afterwards  distinguished  with  his  brother  James 
in  Home  Mission  w^ork,  moved  by  the  Periodical  Accounts, 
sold  his  estate  of  Airthrey  to  endow  a  mission  at  the 
headquarters  of  Hinduism  in  Benares,  with  Dr.  Bogue, 
Dr.  Innes,  and  Greville  Ewing,  and  himself  as  mission- 
aries. The  project  was  only  frustrated  by  the  refusal  of 
sanction  by  the  East  India  Company,  and  it  was  during 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       91 

its  discussion  by  the  Directors  that  one  of  them  is  re- 
ported to   have  said   he  would   "rather  have  a  band  of 
devils    in    India    than    a    band    of    missionaries "  !     Two 
Synods  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  petitioned  that  year's 
Assembly  on  behalf  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  the  memorials 
gave  rise  to  that  famous  debate  in  which  Mr.  Hamilton 
of  Gladsmuir  (seconded  by  Dr.  Carlyle  of  Inveresk)  moved 
the  opposition.      Hamilton  argued  that  "to  spread  abroad 
the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  among  barbarous  and  heathen 
nations  seems  to   be  highly  preposterous"   in   so   far  as 
"  philosophy  and  learning  must,  in  the  nature  of  thin^^s, 
take  the  precedence";  and  that  "  while 
there  remains  at   home   a  single  in- 
dividual   without    the    means    of    re- 
ligious   knowledge,    to    propagate    it 
abroad     would      be      improper     and 
absurd."     The  proposal   for  a  collec- 
tion for  Foreign  Missions  he  declared 
"would  no  doubt  be  a  legal  subject 
of  penal  prosecution  "  !     The   speech 
brought  out  the  notable  reply  of  Dr.        ^«- John  Erskine. 
Erskine,  prefaced  by  the  exclamation,   "Moderator,   rax 
me  that  Bible."     The  attempt  to  make  the  Church  mis- 
sionary was  nevertheless  defeated  for  the  time  being,  as 
was  also  an  effort  in  the  Associate  Synod,  which  objected 
to  the    "  lowering  of  denominational    testimony  by  pro- 
miscuous association  in  mission  work."     But    the   wide- 
spread interest  among  the  laity  was  shown  by  generous 
gifts,  including  £94  from  the  remote  parish  of  Urquhart, 
and    £305    from    five    churches    in    the    Presbytery    of 
Tain.     The  two  Societies  led  the  van,  and  prepared  the 
way  for   the  Scottish  Church  missions.       They   had    to 
serve  a  long    and   disastrous   apprenticeship    to   mission 
work.     In  March  1797  the  Glasgow  Society  sent  to  Sierra 
Leone  two  missionary  catechists  who  proved  unworthy.    In 


92 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


tlie  following  October  each  of  the  Societies  sent  two  men, 
wdtli  two  from  the  London  Society,  to  the  Siisoos  of  West 
Africa.  Messrs.  Ferguson  and  Graham,  the  Glasgow  men, 
soon  succumbed  to  fever.  From  Edinburgh  went  Peter 
Greig,  a  godly  gardener  from  Donibristle  in  Fife,  m^io  was 
murdered  by  the  Foulahs,  and  became  the  first  martyr  of 
the  new  missionary  era  ;  and  Henry  Brunton,  who  after- 
wards laboured  under  the  Society  among  the  Tartars  of 
the  Black  Sea  and  Caspian  region.    Work  begun  in  1821  in 

KafFraria  became  the  basis 
of  the  present  mission  there 
of  the  Free  and  United  Pres- 
byterian Churches.  The 
Rev.  Donald  Mitchell,  a  son 
of  the  Manse,  and  ex- 
lieutenant  of  the  East  India 
Company,  began  a  mission 
at  Bombay  in  1822 ;  and 
that  work,  coupled  with  an 
appeal  from  Dr.  Bryce,  the 
Church  of  Scotland's  first 
Indian  chaplain,  led  the 
Church,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Dr.  Inglis,  to  under- 
take her  "India  Mission" 
in  1825,  and  to  send  Dr.  Duff  to  Calcutta  in  1829. 

The  greatest  of  all  our  Missionary  Societies  founded 
on  18th  March  1799  under  the  name  of  the  "Society  for 
Missions  to  Africa  and  the  East,"  and  known  since  1812 
as  "  The  Church  Missionary  Society,"  was  nourished  by 
that  select  band  of  men  who  represented  the  Evangelical 
revival  in  the  Church  of  England  —  Simeon,  Thomas 
Scott,  John  Newton,  Charles  Grant,  Wilberforce,  and 
others.  As  was  the  case  in  other  Churches,  the  Society 
did  not  for  many  years  enjoy  the  patronage  of  the  official 


Charles  Simeon. 

From  his  Biography,  by  Principal 

Moule  (Methuen  and  Co.). 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       93 

organs  or  leaders.  For  three  years  one  Englishman  alone 
— the  Senior  Wrangler,  Henry  Martyn — responded  to  the 
appeal  for  workers,  but  he  subsequently  found  it  easier  to 
gain  entrance  to  India  as  one  of  the  Company's  chaplains. 
In  1804  the  first  mission  was  begun  in  West  Africa  with 
workers  from  Germany,  which  indeed  supplied  nearly  half 
of  the  Society's  first  hundred  missionaries. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  early  eff'orts  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  Dr.  Coke.  His  long  life,  spent  in  the  interest  of 
missions,  closed  at  sea  in  1814,  when  he  was  leading 
forth  a  mission  bound  to  Ceylon.  In  1816  the  Wesley  an 
Missionary  Society  was  formed  to  carry  on  his  labours. 
Intimately  connected  with  the  above  Societies  were  the 
Religious  Tract  Society  (1799),  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  (1804),  and  the  Edinburgh  Bible  Society 
(1809),  which,  with  the  Glasgow  Bible  Society  (1812), 
formed  the  basis  of  the  National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland 
— all  of  them  the  indispensable  allies  of  the  century's 
Home  and  Foreign  Mission  work. 

America  soon  felt  the  impetus  of  the  British  Societies. 
In  1796  an  undenominational  Society  was  formed  in  New 
York,  with  monthly  prayer  meetings  for  an  outpouring  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  salvation  of  all  nations.  But  it 
was  the  influence  of  a  band  of  College  students  which  led 
to  the  first  organised  Society.  While  at  Williams  College 
in  1806  Samuel  J.  Mills  proposed  to  three  like-minded 
fellow-students,  "  under  lee  of  a  haystack,  where  they  had 
taken  refuge  from  a  thunderstorm,"  that  they  should 
attempt  to  send  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen ;  and  two 
years  after,  he  and  others  drew  up  in  cypher — "public 
opinion  being  opposed  to  us "  — the  constitution  of  a 
Society  "  to  effect  in  the  person  of  its  members  a  mission 
to  the  heathen."  Later  on,  at  the  Andover  Theological 
Seminary,  the  members  were  increased,  among  others,  by 
Adoniram  Judson,  who  had  been  profoundly  moved  on 


94  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

reading  the  Star  in  the  East^  written  by  the  great  Indian 
chaplain,  Claudius  Buchanan,  whose  father  was  school- 
master at  Cambuslang  when  Whitfield  preached  on  its 
braes.  A  petition  from  the  young  men  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Association,  asking  if  they  might  expect 
patronage  in  America,  or  must  join  a  British  Society,  led 
in  1810  to  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions,^  and  to  the  sailing  for  Calcutta  under 
its  auspices  in  February  1812  of  Judson,  Rice,  Newell, 
Hall,  and  Xott.  The  British  authorities  refused  them 
permission  to  remain,  and  the 
last  three  ultimately  settled  at 
Bombay.  Of  Judson  and  Bice, 
who  had  in  the  meantime  become 
Baptists,  the  former  became  the 
great  apostle  of  Burma,  and  the 
latter  stirred  up  in  America  the 
interest  which  led  to  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union  (1814). 
The  Continent  of  Europe,  too, 
felt  the  impulse.  In  Holland  the 
Rev.  Claudius  Buchanan,  d.d.  Netherlands    Missionary    Society 

From  iUemorr.  by  Pearson.         ^.^g    iovm^d    in    1797,    at    first    aS 

an  auxiliary  to  the  London  Mission,  under  the  influence 
of  the  remarkable  Vanderkemp  (see  p.  179).  In  1815  the 
Basel  Mission  School  was  instituted  for  the  training  of 
missionaries,  and  in  1822  the  first  direct  agent  of  the  Basel 
Mission  was  sent  to  Southern  Russia.  The  Berlin  Society 
(1824)  resulted  from  an  appeal  by  ten  noted  men,  in- 
cluding Xeander  and  Tholuck  ;  but  it  had  an  earlier  source 
in  1800  in  the  establishment  of  a  mission  school  by 
Father  Jiinicke,  "  the  faithful  witness  for  the  Gospel  in  a 
faithless  age."     From  this  school  went   out  about  eighty 

^  The  A.B.C.F.M.  originally  embraced  Congregationalists  and  Pres- 
byterians, but  in  1837  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Missions  was  formed. 


THRESHOLD  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       95 

labourers  to  English  and  Dutch  Societies.  The  Berlin 
Society's  first  field  was  in  South  Africa,  where  also  went 
those  of  the  Rhenish  Missionary  Society  (182<S),  The 
Paris  Evangelical  Society  was  formed  in  1822,  the  Danish 
Society  in  1821,  the  Swedish  Society  in  1835,  and  the 
Norwegian  Society  in  1842. 

The  marvellous  missionary  uprising  which  heralded 
the  present  era  has  been  given  in  outline.  Its  results  to 
the  non-Christian  world  in  every  land  we  are  now  to  trace. 
What  it  has  done  for  the  life  of  the  home  Churches  is 
beyond  calculation.  Even  at  the  outset  Fuller  could 
write  of  the  reflex  action  :  "  Our  hearts  are  enlarged  ;  and 
if  no  other  good  had  arisen  from  the  undertaking  than  the 
effect  produced  upon  our  own  minds  and  the  minds  of 
Christians  in  our  country,  it  were  then  equal  to  the 
expense." 


Ordination  of  FiKtir  Five  Missiunahhs  oh    ihk  American  Board  in  1S12. 
From  The  Congregationalist. 


^m^/m^/jiimm:t-^x  /n;7///i;LmMm  ^/mmmmmmiTA 

The  GoDr)f:ssEs  I^akshmi,  Parvati,  and  Saraswati,  the  Wives  of  the 

Hindu  Gods  Vishnu,  Siva,  and  Brahma  respectively. 

From  Coleman's  Mythology  of  the  Hindus. 


CHAPTER   VII 


THE    HINDUS    AND    THEIR    NEIGHBOURS 


India  has  been  well  termed  "the  Gibraltar  of  paganism.", 
Its  geographical  position  and  historical  connections,  its 
teeming  millions  and  variety  of  race  and  language,  its 
hoary  systems  of  religion  and  philosophy,  as  well  as  its 
worship  of  idols  and  of  demons,  combine  to  make  it 
perhaps  the  greatest  of  the  mission  -  fields ;  and  the 
Christian  Church  has  shown  its  appreciation  of  this  by 
carrying  on  the  attack  there  on  a  greater  scale  than  in 
any  other  land. 

India  is  a  world  in  itself.  While  it  represents  but 
one-fifteenth  of  the  earth's  area,  one  out  of  every  five  of 
the  human  family  is  found  among  its  300,000,000  of 
inhabitants.  It  has  ever  been  a  "land  of  desire,"  and 
its  history,  in  consequence,  has  been  "a  long  march  of 
successive  dynasties,  conc^ueror  trampling  upon  conqueror, 
race  over-running  race."  The  historic  sense  was  little 
cultivated  in  the  East,  and  the  story  of  India  before  the 


20 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  97 

invasion  of  Alexander  the  Great  (327  B.C.)  cannot  be 
given  with  certainty,  but  before  the  advent  of  the  Aryans 
three  distinct  immigrations  can  be  traced,  the  Tibeto- 
Burman  and  the  Kolarian  from  the  north-east,  and  the 
Dravidian  from  the  north-west.  The  Indo-Aryan  people 
— that  section  of  the  Aryan  race  which  migrated  to  the 
south-east  on  leaving  the  primitive  home  in  Central  Asia 
four  or  five  thousand  years  ago  —  crossed  the  Hima- 
layan passes  into  the  Punjab,  and  acquiring  the  name  of 
Hindus  from  their  first  settlements  on  the  banks  of  the 
Indus,  gradually  dominated  the  country.  Their  earliest 
sacred  book,  the  noble  Rig  Veda,  a  collection  of  prayers 
and  hymns,  probably  composed  soon  after  they  settled  in 
their  new  land,  shows  their  religion  to  have  been  the 
worship  of  Nature,  though  some  scholars  find  in  it  traces 
of  an  earlier  monotheism. 

Vedism  presents  a  striking  contrast  to  the  popular 
Hinduism  of  to-day.  It  had  a  strange  development  in 
Brahmanism,  with  its  priestly  code,  pantheistic  philo- 
sophy, rigid  law,  and  iron-bound  caste.  Brahmanism 
showed  a  wonderful  power  of  absorption,  alike  of  the 
Animism  or  spirit-worship  of  the  aborigines,  and  of  that 
Buddhism  which  for  centuries  threatened  its  existence, 
and  largely  through  contact  with  which  Brahmanism  re- 
sulted in  modern  Hinduism.  Hinduism,  it  has  been  said, 
"  may  be  regarded  as  a  reservoir  into  which  have  run  all 
the  various  religious  ideas  which  the  mind  of  man  is  capable 
of  elaborating,"  and  it  is  therefore  imjjossible  to  do  justice  to 
its  excellences  or  to  indicate  its  defects  in  a  few  sentences.^ 
Its  sacred  books  contain  at  once  philosophic  truths  and 
puerile  absurdities,  moral  precepts  and  shameless  im- 
moralities. The  later  books  show  a  marked  falling  off, 
as  Sir    Monier   Williams    points  out   in  contrasting  the 

^  For  a  clear  and  succinct  exposition  of  Hinduisju  see  Principal 
Grant's  Religions  of  the  World  (Kevell). 


98 


MISSIONARY  EXPAIs'SION 


Lam cu ACE  Map 


I  N  DIA 


Aryan 
I'':!'''  '.'1  Vra yjc/j an 
^^m  KoJa/'ian 

Burma  Tjhefan\ 

Khasj 


Tlie  Tlhetn-Burmnn.'i  are  not  numerous  in  India  proper,  and  chiefly 
consist  of  Himalayan  tribes. 

"The  Kolarian  languages  are  all  without  written  character  or 
literature,  and  spoken  only  by  hill  tribes.  The  principal  are  Santali, 
spoken  by  about  1,000,000  of  people  in  Western  Bengal,  and  four 
languages  spoken  by  about  1,000,000  Kols  and  other  tribes  in  the 
Chota  Nagpur  district"  (C.M.S.  Atlas). 

Some  of  the  Dravidians,  such  as  the  Gonds,  Khonds,  and  other 
hill  peoples,  remained  distinct  from  the  Aryan  invaders,  but  those  of 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  99 

sacred  books  of  the  East  with  the  Bible,  in  which  the 
light  of  revelation  is  gradually  unfolded,  and  which  is 
marked  by  progressive  development :  "  After  a  lifelong 
study  of  the  religious  books  of  the  Hindus,  I  feel  com- 
pelled to  express  publicly  my  opinion  of  them.  They 
begin  with  much  promise  amid  scintillations  of  truth  and 
light,  and  occasional  sublime  thoughts  from  the  source 
of  all  truth  and  light,  but  end  in  sad  corruptions  and 
lamentable  impurities."  Hinduism,  asserts  Sir  A.  Lyall, 
is  less  rational  to-day  than  it  was  twenty-five  centuries 
ago,  and  in  the  constant  changes  through  which  it  has 
passed,  "  only  to  one  or  two  things "  (to  quote  from  Dr. 
Murray  Mitchell)  "has  it  remained  inflexibly  true.  It 
has  steadily  upheld  the  proudest  pretensions  of  the 
Brahmans,  and  it  has  never  relaxed  the  sternest  restric- 
tions of  caste."  Modern  Hinduism  is  indeed  more  of  a 
social  league  than  a  religious  system.  "Let  all  those 
votaries  feed  the  Brahman  at  the  birth,  the  marriage, 
and  the  death,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  and  let  caste 
rules  have  due  observance,  and  any  creed  under  the  sun 
may  house  itself  in  Hinduism." 

While  three-fourths  of  the  people  are  classed  as  Hindus, 
there   are   many    other   religions   represented    in    India. ^ 

the  plains  were  driven  south,  and  gradually  amalgamated  with  their 
conquerors,  giving  them  their  language,  of  which  the  four  great 
tongues  are  Telegu  (spoken  by  19|  millions),  Tamil  (15  millions), 
Canarese  (9f  millions),  and  Malayalam  (5^  millions). 

Of  the  Aryan  languages,  the  most  imjiortant  are  Hindi,  including 
Hindustani  or  Urdu,  the  language  of  the  Mohammedans — though  some 
consider  Hindustani  the  generic  language,  with  Hindi  and  Urdu  as 
specific  dialects — (spoken  by  85^  millions)  Bengali  (41  millions), 
Marathi  (18^  millions),  Punjabi  (17|  millions),  Gujerati  (10^  millions), 
Uriya  (9  millions). 

^  Religious  Census  of  British  India  {including  Burma)  in  1891 : 

Hindus 207,731,727 

Mohammedans 57,321,164 


Carry  forward     265,052,891 


100 


MISSIONARY  EXPAXSION 


Buddhism  was  born  there,  and  was  for  a  time  dominant, 
but  is  now  practically  unknown  in  India  proper.  The 
mission   work  among   the  Buddhists   of    Burma  will   be 

noticed  in  the  next 
chapter.  The  Jains, 
chiefly  found  in  the 
Bombay  Presidency, 
have  many  points  in 
common  with  Bud- 
dliism,  and  have 
largely  borrowed  from 
it.  Thej  profess  to 
be  followers  of  the 
•Tinas,  vanc^uishers  of 
vice  and  virtue,  "men 
Ashom  they  believe  to 
AsoKA's  Pillar,!  Delhi.  y^^^^  attained  Xirvana 

or  emancipation  from  the  power  of  transmigration,"  and 
they  are  distinguished  by  a  scrupulous  regard  for  the 
preservation  of  animal  life.     The  Mohammedan  conquest 


Brought  forward 

265,052,891 

Aboriginals    . 

9,280,467 

Buddhists  (Burma) 

7,131,361 

Christians  : — 

European    . 

168,000 

Eurasian     . 

79,842 

Native  Christians 

2,036,330 

Sikhs     . 

2,284,172 
1,907,833 

Jains     . 

1,416,638 

Parsees  . 

. 

89,904 

Jews 

. 

17,194 

Miscellaneous 

Grand  total     . 

42,971 

287,223,431 

ti   the   small   French 

and    Portuguese    settlements    there    ar 

addition  over  300,000  Christians. 

1  The  Pillar  was  built  l)y  the  "Buddhist  Constantine,"  Asoka,  in 
the  third  century  B.C.  The  surrounding  Saracenic  arch  belongs  to  the 
Mohammedan  era,     The  British  soldier  represents  the  present  regime. 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  101 

has  left  a  deep  mark  on  Indian  history,  so  that  the 
Queen-Empress  has  in  the  descendants  of  the  victorious 
invaders  and  those  who,  forced  by  the  sword  or  otherwise, 
accepted  their  religion,  many  more  Mohammedan  subjects 
than  the  Sultan  of  Turkey.  The  faith  of  the  noble  and 
warlike  Sikhs,  which  sprang  in  1526  from  Nanak's  re- 
ligious reform  movement,  by  which  he  tried  to  unite 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans  in  one  faith,  still  finds  its 
religious  centre  in  their  sacred  book,  the  Granth,  which 
contains,  writes  Dr.  Youngson  of  Sialkote,  "the  sayings 
of  Nanak  and  his  successors,  as  well  as  those  of  his  pre- 
decessor, tli^  Hindu  Kabir,"  and  which,  in  the  Golden 
Temple  at  Amritsar  and  elsewhere,  is  "adored  as  if  it 
were  a  living  person,  eating,  sleeping,  waking,  working." 
The  Parsis  are  a  small  but  most  influential  community, 
a  remnant  of  the  once  powerful  Zofoastrianism  or  fire- 
worship  of  Persia,  which  Mohammedanism  overcame. 
These  faiths,  with  the  devil-worship  of  the  aborigines 
and  other  phases  of  religious  thought,  all  live  together 
within  a  well-defined  and  compact  geographical  area,  but 
there  is  little  cohesion  and  no  unity.  No  doubt  India  has 
now  for  the  first  time  in  its  history  acquired  a  common 
political  bond  through  British  supremacy,  but  as  yet  it  is  a 
mass  of  antagonistic  and  irreconcilable  elements.  Professor 
Seeley,  approaching  the  subject  from  the  political  stand- 
point in  his  Expansion  of  England,  used  suggestive  and, 
we  believe,  prophetic  words  when  he  wrote  : — 

Is  it  conceivable  that  we  may  some  day  find  our  Christianity  a 
reconciling  element  between  ourselves  and  these  contending  re- 
ligions ?  We  are  to  remember  that,  as  Islam  is  the  crudest  form 
of  Semitic  religion,  Brahniinism  on  the  other  hand  is  an  expression 
of  Aryan  thought.  .  .  .  Judaism  and  classical  Paganism  were  in 
Europe  at  the  beginning  of  our  era  what  Mohammedanism  and 
Brahminism  are  now  in  India.  ...  In  Europe  a  great  fusion 
took  place  by  means  of  the  Christian  Church,  which  fusion  has 
throughout  modern  history  been  growing  more  and  more  complete. 


102 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION" 


Carey  found  in  India  other  and  older  bodies  of  native 
Christians  than  the  converts  of  the  Danish-Halle  Mission. 
In  the  south-west  were  the  members  of  the  "Syrian 
Church  of  Malabar,"  called  also  "Christians  of  St. 
Thomas,"  from  the  unfounded  tradition  that  the  Ajwstle 
of  that  name  planted  the  church.  Pantsenus,  the  renowned 
Principal  of  the  Christian  College  at  Alexandria,  is  the  first 
missionary  to  India  of  whom  we  have  any  historical  traces, 

being    sent    (180-190), 


says  Jerome,  to  "preach 
Christ  among  the  Brah- 
mans."  Later,  they 
came  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Nestorian 
Church  of  Persia,  and 
when  it  was  destroyed 
by  the  Mohammedan 
conquest,  the  isolated 
Church  in  India  grew 
ignorant  and  impure. 
Vasco  da  Gama  found 
those  Christians  enjoy- 
ing much  political  in- 
fluence, and  the  Portu- 
guese, in  extending  their  dominions  from  Goa  along 
the  west  coast,  tried  to  force  them  into  ecclesiastical 
subjection  to  Rome.  With  the  help  of  the  Inquisition 
they  succeeded  for  a  time  with  the  communities  in  the 
coast  villages,  and  these,  numbering  perhaps  150,000, 
are  still  known  as  Syro- Roman  Christians.  Claudius 
Buchanan,  who  visited  those  who  still  adhered  to  the 
Syrian  Church  and  looked  to  Antioch  as  their  centre, 
persuaded  them  to  translate  the  gospels  into  their  Malay- 
alam  vernacular,  and  at  his  suggestion  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  sent  missionaries   in   1816  to  encourage 


Thk  oldest  Christian  Inscription  in  India 
—  Seventh  Century. 

From  Dr.  George  Smith's  Tite  Conversion  of 
India  (Revell). 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  103 

the  Church,  and  aid  it  to  reform  itself.  This  alliance, 
which  lasted  for  twenty-one  years,  had  good  results,  and 
there  is  now  a  considerable  party  of  reform  within  a 
Church  of  200,000  adherents. 

The  best  traditions  of  Roman  Catholic  Missions  cluster 
around  the  name  of  the  great  and  devoted  Jesuit,  Francis 
Xavier,  who  landed  at  Goa  in  1542,  and  of  whom  Bishoj) 
Cotton  wrote  to  Dean  Stanley  :  "  While  he  deserves  the 
title  of  the  Apostle  of  India  for  his  energy,  self-sacrifice, 
and  piety,  I  consider  his  whole  method  thoroughly  wrong, 
and  its  results  in  India  and  Ceylon  deplorable,  and  that 
the  aspect  of  the  native  Christians  at  Goa  and  elsewhere 
shows  that  Romanism  has  had  a  fair  trial  at  the  conversion 
of  India,  and  has  entirely  failed."  To  follow  the  history 
of  Romish  Missions  in  India  is  beyond  our  scope,  and 
impossible  in  our  space.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
propaganda  of  the  Church  of  Rome  is  being  carried  on 
with  increasing  vigour,  and  that  while  its  native  Christians 
are  not  increasing  in  the  same  proportion  as  those  of  the 
Reformed  Churches,  its  total  number  of  one  and  a  quarter 
millions,  largely  the  fruits  of  the  Nestorian  and  early 
Jesuit  efforts,  is  more  than  twice  as  large  as  theirs. 

A  most  important  element  is  the  quarter  million  of 
Europeans  and  Eurasians  (of  mixed  European  and  Asiatic 
blood  of  varying  degree),  who  are  to  the  natives  represent- 
atives of  the  Christian  religion,  and  whose  influence  is 
powerful  for  or  against  the  evangelisation  of  the  land. 

The  younger  branch  of  the  Aryan  family  going  west- 
ward into  Europe  found  Christ  and  prospered,  and 
now  to  an  ever-increasing  degree  it  realises  the  privilege 
of  heralding  the  good  tidings  among  its  elder  brethren  in 
India.  At  the  beginning  of  this  century  it  had  not  more 
than  ten  representatives;  now  they  are  to  be  found  in 
almost  every  district.  The  missionary  army  of  well-nigh 
2000  men   and   women   is  truly  international — from  the 


104  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

British  Empire  (including  Canada  and  Australasia), 
America,  Germany,  Sweden,  and  Denmark.  The  place  of 
honour  in  respect  of  numbers  is  held  by  our  American 
kinsmen,  whose  disinterested  zeal  and  liberality  are  worthy 
of  all  commendation.  The  army,  too,  is  inter-denomina- 
tional— Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  Lutherans,  Baptists, 
Methodists,  Congregationalists,  Friends,  etc.,  all,  with  few 
exceptions,  working  in  harmony,  dividing  the  land  between 
them,  and  meeting  in  provincial  and  general  conferences 
for  mutual  help.  The  ecclesiastical  differences  which  bulk 
largely  at  home  are  at  least  minimised  in  face  of  the  great 
common  task. 

While  it  is  a  matter  of  profound  gratitude  that  so  many 
nations  are  represented,  a  very  special  responsibility  rests 
upon  Britain,  for,  as  Major  Herbert  Edwardes  said  at 
the  founding  of  the  Mission  at  Peshawur,  on  the  Afghan 
frontier,  "  We  may  rest  assured  that  the  East  has  been  given 
to  our  country  for  a  mission,  neither  to  the  minds  nor 
bodies,  but  to  the  souls  of  men."  In  treating,  therefore, 
of  the  conversion  of  India,  the  direct  work  of  the  mission- 
aries is  not  the  only  element  to  be  considered.  Full 
justice  must  also  be  done  to  the  preparation  for  the  Gospel 
by  the  Christian  Government  and  its  officers  as  well  as  to 
their  co-operation.  Mention  has  already,  been  made  of  the 
action  of  the  East  India  Company  before  and  during  the 
great  missionary  uprising,  when  the  "politically  brave" 
rulers  were  often  "religiously  timid," — an  attitude  which 
did  not  comi^letely  change  for  many  years.  But  it  did 
not  represent  either  the  position  of  all  the  rulers  or  of  the 
British  public.  Nathaniel  Forsyth,  the  first  agent  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  had  in  1798  to  seek  protection 
at  the  Dutch  settlement  of  Chinsurah,  twenty  miles  north 
of  Calcutta,  and  the  following  year  Carey's  colleagues, 
Marshraan  and  Ward,  had  to  take  shelter  with  the  Danes 
at    Serampore,   between   Chinsurah  and    Calcutta.      The 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  105 

activity  of  the  "Serampore  trio,"  as  Carey,  Marshman, 
and  Ward  were  called,  alarmed  the  Government  and  led  it 
to  take  means  to  bolster  up  paganism,  and  to  prohibit 
mission  work  within  its  territories.  But  this  opposition 
roused  many  earnest  men  in  Britain,  and  the  last  of  the 
expulsions  took  place  in  1813.  In  that  year  the  new 
charter  given  by  Parliament  to  the  East  India  Company 
contained  the  famous  "pious  clauses"  which  enacted 
that : — 

It  was  the  duty  of  this  country  to  promote  the  introduction 
of  useful  knowledge  and  of  religious  and  moral  improvement  in 
India,  and  that  facilities  be  offered  by  law  to  persons  desirous  of 
going  to  and  remaining  in  India  to  accomplish  these  benevolent 
designs. 

A  great  increase  of  missionary  effort  followed,  and  the 
religious  interests  of  the  European  Christians  were  put 
on  a  better  basis  through  the  appointment  of  Episcopal 
and  Presbyterian  chaplains  to  be  supported  by  Govern- 
ment. Many  things  still  remained  "  to  purge  Hindu  society 
of  some  of  its  grosser  elements,"  and  each  step  the  Govern- 
ment took,  generally  at  the  instigation  of  the  missionaries, 
was  met  by  violent  oi)position  from  the  natives  and  also 
from  the  "  orientalised  "  Europeans.  The  various  forms  of 
self-torture  and  of  suicide  at  the  festival  of  Juganath  were 
abolished,  as  also  such  inhuman  practices  as  the  Meriah 
sacrifices,  for  which  children  were,  in  the  name  of  religion, 
purposely  nourished  in  order  to  be  slaughtered.  In  1829 
Lord  William  Bentinck,  acting  upon  a  scholarly  report 
by  Carey,  put  an  end  to  suttee,  or  the  self-immolation  of 
widows  on  their  husbands'  funeral  pyres  under  pressure  of 
public  opinion.  Carey,  when  present  at  ^suttee,  told  the 
Brahmans  it  was  a  "  shocking  murder,"  but  according  to 
them  it  was  a  "great  act  of  holiness."  The  Government 
ceased  by  degrees  to  support  idolatry  and  to  act  as  "  church- 
wardens to  Juganath,"  and  one  of  the  last  incidents  in  the 


106 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


struggle  took  place  in  1837,  when  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland, 
Couunander-in-Cliief  of  the  ^ladras  Army,  resigned  rather 
than  pay  official  honour  to  an  idol. 

Many  civilians  and  missionaries  perished  in  that  terrible 
soldiers'  mutiny  of  1857,  which  had  far-reaching  conse- 
quences. It  revealed  the  steadfastness  and  loyalty  of  the 
native  Christians  in  the  midst  of  persecution,  even  under 


threat  of  death 


These  were  men  like  Wilayat  Ali,  the 
eminent  native 
preacher  at  Delhi, 
who  told  the  Moham- 
medan troops,  "  Yes, 
I  am  a  Christian, 
and  am  prepared  to 
live  and  die  a  Chris- 
tian," and  whose 
last  words  before 
his 
"O 


my 
the 


execution  were, 
Jesus,  receive 
soul  "  ;  or  like 
Rev.  Gopinath 
Nundy,  one  of  Dr. 
I  Miff's  Brahman  con- 
verts, who,  on  being 
oifered  life  and  high 
rank,  if  he  and  his  family  would  renounce  Christ,  said, 
"We  prefer  death  to  any  inducement  you  can  hold  out," 
and  whose  equally  noble  wife  pleaded  Avitli  a  Mohammedan 
Moulvi,  "  You  will  confer  a  great  favour  by  ordering  us 
all  to  be  killed  at  once,  and  not  to  be  tortured  with  a 
living  death."     Happily  help  came  in  time  to  save  them. 

The  Mutiny  also  brought  India  under  the  direct 
government  of  the  Queen,  who  on  the  occasion  issued 
that  noble  Proclamation  of  political  liberty  and  complete 
religious  toleration  which  marks  the  beginning  of  India's 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS 


107 


true  history,  and  whose  "  religious  clauses  "  bear  testimony 
to  the  wisdom  and  real  greatness  of  the  beloved  Em})ress. 
The  first  unsatisfactory  draft  she  returned  to  Lord  Derby 
with  this  message  : — 

Such  a  document  should  breathe  feelings  of  generosity, 
benevolence,  and  religious  toleration,  and  point  out  the  privilege 
which  tlie  Indians  will  receive  on  being  placed  on  an  equality  with 
the  subjects  of  the  British  Crown  and  the  prosperity  following  in 
the  train  of  civilisation. 

And  in  the  new  copy  she  herself,  on  the  suggestion  of 
the  Prince  Consort,  prefaced 
a  paragraph  with  these 
words,  "  Firmly  relying 
ourselves  on  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  and  acknow- 
ledging with  gratitude  the 
solace  of  religion  "  ;  and  at 
the  close  she  added,  "  And 
may  the  God  of  all  power 
grant  to  us,  and  to  those 
in  authority  under  us, 
strength  to  carry  out  these 
our  wishes  for  the  good  of 
our  people." 

The  responsibility  of  the 
British  people  for  India  was 
vividly  brought  home  to 
them  by  the  Mutiny,  and 
they  were  stirred  to  fresh  missionary  zeal,  as  shown  in  the 
strengthening  of  old  missions  and  the  founding  of  new 
agencies,  such  as  the  Christian  Vernacular  Education 
Society,  which  was  indeed  a  Mutiny  memorial,  and  the 
Mission  of  the  Scottish  United  Presbyterian  Church  to 
Kajputana  under  Dr.  Shoolbred.  Since  the  Mutiny  the 
number  of  missionaries  has  increased  fourfold.     It  also 


The  Queen-Empress  of  India. 
Photo  by  Walery,  Limited. 


108  MISSIO^TARY  EXPA:N^SiON 

made  men  ponder  as  to  the  true  cause  of  the  trouble, 
whether,  for  example,  the  old  timid  religious  policy  had 
not  signally  failed.  This  was  expressed  by  the  noble  Lord 
Lawrence,  "  I  believe  that  what  more  stirred  up  the  Indian 
Mutiny  than  any  other  thing  was  the  habitual  cowardice 
of  Great  Britain  as  to  her  own  religion." 

Lord  Northbrook,  a  former  Viceroy  of  India,  has 
stated  that  the  Lawrences,  Herbert  Edwardes,  Reynell 
Taylor,  James  Outram,  Henry  Havelock,  "and,  in  fact, 
nearly  all  the  men  who  came  forward  at  the  time  of  the 
Mutiny,  and  through  whose  exertions  the  British  Empire 
in  India  was  preserved,"  were  warm  advocates  of  mission 
work.  Others,  too,  he  mentions — Sir  Robert  Montgomery, 
Sir  Donald  M'Leod,  Sir  William  Muir,  Sir  Charles 
Aitchison,  Sir  Richard  Temple,  Sir  Rivers  Thompson, 
and  Sir  Charles  Bernard. ^  "  Such  are  the  men,"  says 
Lord  Northbrook,  "in  whom,  more  than  in  any  others, 
the  natives  of  India,  whether  Christians  or  not,  had  the 
greatest  confidence,"  and  they,  and  others  like-minded, 
have  been  the  real  pioneers  of  missions.  "  Almost  all  the 
stations  now  occupied  by  the  C.M.S.  were,"  says  Mr. 
Stock,  "  taken  up  at  the  urgent  request  of  these  men, 
backed  by  large  subscriptions,"  and  other  missions  have 
had  a  like  experience.  For  example.  Sir  James  Outram, 
a  Mutiny  hero,  who  dearly  loved  India  and  the  Indians, 
handed  over  his  Scinde  prize-money  to  Dr.  Duff  and  other 
missionaries. 

India  has  need  of  the  wisdom  and  love  of  such  great 
and  good  rulers,  for  the  problem  of  its  government  is  not 
easy.  Sir  Henry  S.  Maine,  who,  following  Macaulay, 
"  applied    to    India   .    .    .    the   best   fruits   of    Christian 

1  We  might  add  a  host  more, — such  men  as  Sir  Charles  Elliott  and 
Sir  Alex.  Mackenzie,  Lieutenant-Governors  of  Bengal,  and  Mr.  James 
Monro  (formerly  a  high  Indian  otficial,  and  for  a  time  Commissioner 
of  the  London  Police,  and  now  head  of  a  family  mission  at  Ptanaghat 
in  Beiigal). 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS 


109 


legislation 


in  the  West,"  once  quoted  the  remark  that 
"the  British  rulers  in  India  are  like  men  bound  to 
make  their  watches  keep  true  time  in  two  longitudes 
at  once."  Even  in  the  Diamond  Jubilee  year,  when 
Indian  soldiers  formed  the  Queen's  bodyguard  on  the 
great  Commemoration  day,  apt  illustrations  of  this  were 
given  in  the  opposition  and  prejudices  aroused  by 
the  attempt  to  enforce  Western  ideas  of  sanitation  in 
the  pi  ague -stricken  city  of  Poona ;  in  the  trouble  of 
reo-ulating  the  Press,  conducted  by  men  whose  English 
education  had  brought  them  into 
touch  with  theories  of  govern- 
ment unsuited  as  yet  to  India ; 
and  in  the  difficulty  of  holding 
an  even-handed  justice  between 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans  quar- 
relling over  the  site  of  a  mosque 
at  Calcutta.  At  such  a  time  the 
wise  words  of  Lord  Lawrence, 
written  after  the  Mutiny,  are 
worth  pondering  : — 

In  consideiing  topics  such  as 
those  treated  of  in  this  despatch, 
we  would  solely  endeavour  to  ascertain  what  is  our  Cliristian 
duty.  .  .  .  Cliristian  things  done  in  a  Christian  way  will  never, 
the  Chief  Commissioner  is  convinced,  alienate  the  heathen.  About 
such  things  there  are  qualities  which  do  not  provoke  nor  excite 
distrust,  nor  liarden  to  resistance.  It  is  when  un-Christian  things 
are  done  in  the  name  of  Christianity,  or  wlien  Christian  things  are 
done  in  an  un-Christian  way,  that  mischief  and  danger  are  occasioned. 

Carey  landed  at  Calcutta  on  10th  November  1793  to 
begin  his  forty-one  years  of  uninterrupted  effort  in  Bengal. 
His  first  six  years  were  served  in  the  school  of  hard- 
ship and  disappointment.  For  a  time  he  and  his  family 
literally  starved  ;  he  was  indebted  to  a  native  for  the  use 
of  a  hut  in  Calcutta,  and  for  six  months  he  tried  to  combine 


Lord  Lawrence. 

From  his  Biograph  y  by  Sir  Richard 

Temple  (Macmillan  and  Co.). 


no 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


farming  and  mission  work  amidst  the  malarial  and  tiger- 
haunted  Sunderbunds  to  the  east  of  Calcutta ;  yet  in  all 
his  discouragements  he  could  say,  "  I  have  God,  and  His 
word  is  sure  .  .  .  God's  cause  ivill  triumph,  and  I  shall 
come  out  of  all  trials  as  gold  purified  in  the  fire."  The 
next  five  years  he  spent  as  an  indigo  planter  in  the 
Dinajpore  district,  northwards  towards  the  Himalayas, 
where  he  laboured  at  the  Indian  languages  and  preached 
the  Gospel.  He  hoped  to  found  there  a  Christian  colony, 
but  the  East  India  Company  fortunately  refused  to  allow 
—  _    the    reinforcements 

from  England  to 
join  him,  and  he 
was  forced  to  go  to 
them  at  Serampore. 
Thus  in  the  first 
week  of  the  century 
Carey,  the  pious 
cobbler,  Marshman, 
the  weaver  and 
schoolmaster,  and 
Ward,  the  printer 
and  successful  journalist,  formed  the  famous  Serampore 
brotherhood. 

The  first  care  of  the  missionaries  was  their  printing 
press  and  the  translation  of  the  Scrij^tures.  When  Carey 
turned  indigo  planter,  some  of  his  home  friends  cautioned 
him  against  worldliness,  and  he  replied,  "  I  am  indeed  poor, 
and  shall  always  be  so  until  the  Bible  is  published  in 
Bengali  and  Hindustani  and  the  people  need  no  further 
instruction."  In  the  spirit  of  this  resolution  did  the  three 
men  live,  and  they  and  their  families  personally  contributed 
nearly  £90,000  to  their  mission  work,  for  although  Carey 
later  had  a  salary  of  £1800  a  year  as  oriental  Professor  in 
Fort  William  College,  and  the  Marshmans  earned  a  profit 


The  Collec.e  at  bEUAMi'ORE  (ht)TTH  Fron-i). 

From  the  Centenary  Volume  of  the  Baptist 

Missionary  Society. 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  111 

of  £1000  a  year  from  their  boarding  schools,  they  them- 
selves lived  in  common  on  the  barest  subsistence.  All 
that  Carey  did,  says  Dr.  Smith,  "  was  meant  to  result  in 
the  production  and  printing  of  the  vernacular  Bible  for 
every  race  in  the  southern  half  of  Asia  except  the  Tamils, 
who  had  already  received  the  treasure."  In  February  1801 
the  first  copy  of  the  Bengali  New  Testament  was  laid  on  the 
Communion  table  at  a  service  of  thanksgiving.  Eventually 
there  issued  from  Serampore  "  the  first  complete  or  partial 
translations  of  the  Bible,  printed  in  forty  languages  and 
dialects  of  India,  China,  Central  Asia,  and  neighbouring 
lands,  at  a  cost  of  £80,143."  The  labours  of  those 
pioneers  were  indeed  herculean,  and  they  have  had  a  noble 
band  of  successors  in  revising  and  supplementing  their 
efforts,  and  in  the  Bible  Societies  formed  to  circulate  them. 
The  supreme  importance  of  their  work  was  well  indicated 
by  Sir  Charles  Aitchison  when  he  said,  at  the  centenary 
of  their  mission  : — 

The  Bible  is  the  best  of  all  missionaries.  Missionaries  die  ;  the 
printed  Bible  remains  for  ever.  It  finds  access  through  doors  that 
are  closed  to  the  human  foot,  and  into  countries  where  missionaries 
have  not  yet  ventured  to  go.  .  .  .  No  book  is  more  studied  in  India 
now  by  the  native  population  of  all  parties  than  the  Christian 
Bible. 

In  general  literature,  too,  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward 
led  the  van.  From  their  press  (in  connection  with  which 
the  first  paper-mill  and  the  first  steam-engine  were  estab- 
lished in  North  India)  issued  the  first  Bengali  magazine  and 
newspaper.  Not,  indeed,  until  Carey  began  his  lectures 
in  Bengali  was  there  a  single  prose  work  in  that  language. 
They  also  set  the  example  to  modern  scholars  by  translat- 
ing into  English  the  Sanskrit  epics,  the  Ramayan  and 
Mahahharat,  as  well  as  the  Chinese  Confucius.  As  the 
century  has  grown  old,  missionaries  have  paid  much  atten- 
tion to  the  supply  of  vernacular  tracts  and  books  for  the 


112 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


rapidly  increasing  number  of  readers,  and  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  treatises  in  English,  which  yearly  becomes  more 
and  more  the  lingua  franca  of  India.  In  this  work 
the  Christian  Literature  Society,  under  Dr.  Murdoch  of 
]\Iadras,  has  taken  a  leading  part. 

The  first  Serampore  convert  was  Krishnu  Pal,  a 
carpenter,  whose  dislocated  arm  had  been  set  by  Thomas, 
He  was  baptized  in  the  river  Hugli  on  28th  December 
1800,  wdth  Carey's  eldest  son,  in  presence  of  the  Danish 
Governor  and  a  dense  crowd  of 
natives.  Poor  Thomas  had  his 
mind  unhinged  by  excess  of  joy, 
and,  although  he  recovered  his 
mental  powers,  he  died  within  a 
year.  The  news  that  Krishnu 
had  broken  caste — to  the  Hindu 
dearer  than  life — produced  a  sen- 
sation in  the  native  community, 
and  an  angry  mob  of  2000 
dragged  him  before  the  magis- 
trate, whose  reply  was   to  send 

_i    a  sepoy  to  guard  Krishnu's  house ! 

The  Hindus  soon  had  greater 
Sir  Wm.  Jones,  the  eminent  oriental- 
ist, had  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  conversion  of  a 
Brahman  was  impossible,  for,  according  to  the  Code  of 
Manu,  "  All  live  for  him  [Brahman],  and  he  governs  all. 
All  that  exists  in  the  universe  is  the  Brahman's  property." 
Yet  the  impossible  did  happen  when  one  of  that  holy  caste 
threw^  away  his  2J<^ii(^  or  sacred  thread  in  confessing  Christ, 
and  at  the  Communion  service  took  the  Cup  which  had 
been  previously  offered  to  the  Sudra,  Krishnu,  whose 
daughter,  too,  he  afterwards  married.  All  subsequent 
missionaries  may  well  be  thankful  that  from  the  beginning 
Carey  set  his  face  against  any  recognition  of  caste,  perni- 


L 2 JL 

Dr.  Murdui  h 

cause  for  alarm. 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  113 

cioiis  and  insidious  as  it  is,  and  utterly  antagonistic  to  the 
idea  of  Christian  brotherhood.  We  have  seen  what  havoc 
it  wrought  in  the  Danish-Halle  Mission,  from  which  it  was 
only  abolished  after  a  hard  fight  and  many  defections.  In 
the  Tranquebar  Church,  for  example,  the  custom  prevailed 
of  having  one  communion  cup  for  the  higher  castes  and 
another  for  the  lower.  Dr.  John,  a  venerable  missionary  in 
the  early  part  of  this  century,  pleaded  with  the  Christians 
to  abandon  the  practice,  and  on  their  refusal,  had  the  two 
cups  melted  and  re-made  into  one.  Gradually  the  battle 
was  won,  and  Brahman  and  Pariah  sat  down  together  at 
the  table  of  the  Lord. 

Education  was  also  largely  used  at  Serampore  as  a 
missionary  agency.  Vernacular  schools  were  established 
by  Marshman,  and  this  form  of  work  has  since  been 
developed  as  one  of  the  most  important  preparatory  aids 
in  almost  all  missions,  for  by  the  schools  an  impression  is 
made  on  the  youthful  minds  before  they  are  hardened  by 
heathen  practices. 

Higher  education  received  a  great  impetus  from 
Carey  and  his  colleagues  when  they  built  the  magni- 
ficent Serampore  College  out  of  their  earnings.  At 
that  time  Sanskrit  and  other  Eastern  languages  were 
thought  to  be  the  best  instruments  of  a  superior  educa- 
tion for  the  select  youth  of  India.  Carey  indeed  taught 
English  as  well  as  these,  but  the  Scottish  Alexander 
Duff  was  the  epoch-making  missionary,  who,  though 
stoutly  opposed  by  the  use  and  wont  and  the  preju- 
dices of  the  day,  proved  that  the  English  language  was 
the  "  most  effective  medium  of  Indian  illumination." 
Duff,  born  at  Moulin  in  Perthshire,  and  trained  under  Dr. 
Chalmers  at  St.  Andrews,  was  the  first  missionary  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  The  Convener  of  that  Church's 
Committee,  Dr.  Inglis,  shares  with  him  the  credit  of  that 
new  departure  which  has  exercised  a  profound  influence 

8 


114  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

on  India.  Twice  shipwrecked  on  the  voyage,  at  Cape 
Town  losing  all  his  effects  except  his  Bible,  which  was 
picked  up  afterwards  on  the  seashore,  DufF  reached 
Calcutta  in  1829,  and  in  the  following  year  opened  his 
English  school  with  five  pupils.  By  the  end  of  the  first 
week  he  had  300  applicants  for  admission.  Nine  years 
afterwards  the  five  had  become  800,  and  Lord  William 
Bentinck,  the  Governor-General,  declared  that  the  system 
had  produced  "  unparalleled  results."  The  success  of  the 
school  caused  a  panic  among  the 
orthodox  Hindus,  and  students 
were  withdrawn,  but  the  check 
was  only  temporary,  and  really 
served  to  advertise  the  move- 
ment. Notable  converts  were 
won  from  the  upper  classes, 
among  them  Krishna  Mohan 
Banerjea,  a  Kulin  Brahman  of 
high  social  position,  and  the 
accomplished  editor  of  the  In- 
Dr.  Duff.  qtiiver,  wlio  was,  until  his  death 

From  Dr.  George  Smith's  L^u-yn'^^7()/ a  few  years  ago,  the  recognised 
leader  of  the  native  Christian 
community  of  Bengal.  An  idea  of  the  influence  exerted 
by  this  Avork  may  be  formed  from  Sherring's  statement 
that  in  1871  nine  of  Duff's  forty-eight  educated  converts 
were  ministers,  ten  were  catechists,  seventeen  were  pro- 
fessors and  higher-grade  teachers,  eight  were  Government 
servants  of  the  higher  grade,  and  four  were  assistant 
surgeons  and  doctors.  One  of  them,  the  Hon.  Kali 
Churn  Banerji,  LL.B.,  has  (1897)  been  appointed  by  the 
Senate  of  Calcutta  University  as  their  representative  on 
the  Bengal  Legislative  C\)uncil. 

Duff,  Wilson,  and  Anderson   in   the  three  Presidency 
cities  formed  a  Scottish  educational  trio  to  match  that  of 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  115 

Seranipore.  Dr.  John  Wilson  founded  at  Bombay  a  great 
work  on  similar  lines  to  Duff's.  Mr.  Eugene  Stock,  in 
writing  of  mission  work  in  Bombay,  says  that  Wilson, 
"  more  than  any  other  single  influence,  has  left  his  work 
for  ever  on  its  records;  whether  as  philanthropist, 
educational  pioneer,  orientalist,  or  Christian  missionary, 
his  influence  is  an  undying  one."  Two  of  his  first 
converts  were  Parsee  youths  (one  of  them  the  Rev.  Dhan- 
jibhai  Nauroji).  They  were  the  first  of  that  interesting 
people  to  be  baptized  in  modern  times,  and  their  baptism 
created  much  excitement  among  their  co-religionists.  At 
Madras  the  Eev.  John  Anderson  began  his  Institution  in 
1837  with  equal  success,  and  some  of  his  best  students, 
such  as  the  Rev.  P.  Rajagopaul,  confessed  Christ.  He 
gained,  too,  a  splendid  victory  for  the  depressed  classes 
when  he  boldly  admitted  two  Pariah  lads.  The  high-caste 
students  demanded  their  expulsion  or,  at  the  very  least, 
that  they  should  be  placed  on  separate  benches  to  avoid 
pollution,  and  they  all  left  when  Mr.  Anderson  refused. 
His  firmness,  however,  won  the  day,  and  a  deadly  blow  was 
dealt  at  the  preposterous  pretensions  of  caste.  When  Duff^ 
Wilson,  and  Anderson  joined  the  Free  Church  in  1843, 
India  was  the  gainer,  for  by  the  new  work  which  they 
then  founded  the  number  of  educational  institutions  was 
doubled.  Other  bodies  followed  the  example  of  the 
Scottish  Churches.  There  are  now  many  mission  colleges 
affiliated  with  the  Universities  created  by  the  Educa- 
tional Despatch  of  1854,  and  they  may,  as  advocated 
by  Sir  Charles  Bernard  and  others,  be  connected  in  the 
near  future  with  an  Indian  Christian  University.  This 
might  remove  some  of  the  obstacles  that  the  exigencies  of 
the  present  system  create  to  thoroughly  eff'ective  religious 
instruction.  While  the  actual  conversions  through  this 
higher  educational  mission  work  have  been  consider- 
able,  its  indirect  influence    in  leavening   Hindu  society 


116 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


has  been  enormous,  and  the  systematic  teaching  of  the 
Bible  in  the  English  language  has  prepared  a  constitu- 
ency for  occasional  British  and  American  evangelists  and 
lecturers  like  Norman  Macleod,  Somerville,  Pentecost,  and 
Barrows,  as  well  as  for  the  present  hopeful  develoiDment 
of  the  work  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations. 
Dr.  George  Smith  declares,  as  the  result  of  his  unique 
experience,  that  "  the  most  powerful  method  for  the  con- 
version of  Southern  Asia  is  that  of  educational-evangelising, 


Gexeral  Assembly's  IxsTiTmoN,  Calcutta 


directed  by  spiritual  men  and  supplemented  by  preaching 
and  healing." 

Christianity  comes  with  a  gospel  of  hope  to  the  women 
of  all  lands,  and  to  none  in  a  greater  degree  than  to  those 
of  India.  In  such  a  vast  country,  with  varying  races  and 
conditions,  it  is  not  possible  to  make  a  general  statement 
which  will  accurately  characterise  the  whole,  but,  with 
due  allowance  for  exceptions,  this  broad  description  of  the 
state  of  the  women  may  be  aptly  quoted— that  they 
are  "unwelcomed  at  their  birth,  untaught  in  childhood, 
enslaved  when  married,  accursed  as  widows,  unlamented 
when  they  die."  Of  Bengal,  where  the  Zenana  system  is 
rigidly  enforced  for  the  higher  castes,  a  native  writer, 
S.  C.  Bose,  says,  "Volumes  after  volumes  have  been  written 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  117 

on  the  subject,  denouncing  in  an  unmistakable  manner 
the  monstrous  perversity  of  the  existing  system,  but  the 
evil  has  taken  such  a  deep  root  in  the  social  economy  of  the 
people  that  the  utmost  exertions  must  be  put  forth  before 
it  can  be  wholly  eradicated."  Already  much  has  been 
done  directly  by  the  missionaries  and  the  Government,  as 
well  as  indirectly  by  creating  a  more  enlightened  pul)lic 
opinion  among  the  educated  natives.  The  cruelty  and 
immorality  connected  with  child-marriage  have  been  so  far 
mitigated  by  the  raising  of  the  legal  age  of  consent  to 
twelve  years.  The  deplorable  position,  sometimes  amount- 
ing to  a  living  death,  of  the  2,000,000  of  child-widows  is 
being  ameliorated.  Some  of  them  have  even  remarried, 
and  others  have  escaped  from  the  fetters  of  centuries  by 
confessing  Christ  and  taking  refuge  in  such  homes  for 
widows  as  that  of  Pundita  Ramabai  at  Poona.  Girls' 
schools,  of  which  Ward  could  say  there  was  not  a  single 
one  in  India,  were  begun  at  Calcutta  by  Miss  Cooke  (Mrs. 
Wilson)  in  1821,  and  since  then  Societies  and  Churches 
have  followed  the  lead  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Female 
Education  in  the  East  (1834).  A  noble  army  of  mission- 
aries' wives  like  Mrs.  Marshman  and  unmarried  ladies  like 
A.L.O.E.  (Miss  Tucker)  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the 
teaching  of  the  young.  Eighty  years  ago  not  one  female 
in  100,000  is  said  to  have  been  able  to  read  or  write,  but 
now,  through  the  missionary  and  Government  schools,  the 
proportion  of  literates  and  learners  is  six  per  thousand. 

As  far  back  as  1834  Miss  Wakefield  gained  entrance 
to  some  Zenanas.  In  1840  Professor  Thomas  Smith  pro- 
posed, and  the  Rev.  John  Fordyce  carried  out,  a  scheme 
for  the  home  education  of  women ;  and  since  Mrs.  Sale 
and  Mrs.  Mullens  began  their  visits  some  forty  years 
ago,  many  loving  and  patient  ladies  have  brought  cheer 
and  hope  to  those  who  are  doomed  to  pass  their  lives  in 
the  narrow  and  narrowing  limits  of  the  women's  quarters. 


lis 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


Bengali  Converts. 


The  regular  visits  of  700  foreign  and  Eurasian  and  3000 
native  Christian  women  to  40,000  houses  are  profoundly 

influencing  the  home  life 
of  India  and  preparing 
the  way  for  a  mighty 
change. 

For  those  "practically 
imprisoned  inmates  of 
the  Zenana  and  harem  " 
lady  medical  missionaries 
have  been  indeed  a  bless- 
ing. An  indication  of 
the  sufferings  which  the 
mothers  among  them 
have  to  endure  is  given 
in  the  statement  of  a 
native  doctor,  the  Hon. 
M.  L.  Sircar,  M.D.,  that  "from  medical  observation  ex- 
tending over  thirty  years  he  could  state  that  25  per  cent 
of  Hindu  women  die  prematurely 
through  early  marriage,  25  per  cent 
more  were  invalided  by  the  same 
cause,  and  the  vast  majority  of 
the  remainder  suffered  in  health 
from  it."  Medical  ladies,  combin- 
ing as  they  do  the  opportunities 
of  their  sex  and  the  skill  of  their 
profession,  have  a  splendid  chance 
of  winning  the  hearts  of  the 
sufferers,  and  this  was  significantly 
indicated  by  a  Hindu  who  said  to 
Dr.  Henry  Martyn  Clark  of  Am- 
ritsar,  "What  we  really  fear  is  your 
Christian  women,  and  we  are  afraid  of  your  medical  mission- 
aries, for  by  your  Christian  women  you  win  our  wives,  and 


Miss  Swain,  M.D. 

From  Thobum's  India  and 

Malaysia. 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS         119 

by  your  medical  missions  you  win  our  hearts."  American 
lady  physicians  like  Miss  Swain  and  Miss  Mary  Seelye 
have  led  the  way,  and  now  there  are  over  sixty  qualified 
ladies  from  abroad,  with  others  trained  in  India  either  in 
connection  with  the  Universities  or  such  institutions  as 
the  Christian  Women's  Medical  School,  Ludhiana. 

The  missionary  initiative  has  also  led  to  developments 
not  directly  missionary,  such  as  the  noble  "  Lady 
DuflFerin's  Fund,"  which  resulted  from  a  message  on  behalf 
of  the  suffering  women  of  India  sent  to  the  Queen-Empress 
from  the  Maharanee  of  Punna  through  a  missionary  doctor. 
Miss  Beilby  of  Lucknow,  who  had  successfully  treated  her. 
"Write  it  small,  Doctor  Miss  Sahiba,"  pleaded  the  Maha- 
ranee, "  for  I  want  you  to  put  it  in  a  locket,  and  you  are 
to  wear  the  locket  round  your  neck  till  you  see  our  great 
Queen  and  give  it  to  her  yourself."  The  mother-heart  of 
Victoria  gladly  responded,  and  the  result  was  the  founda- 
tion of  the  national  Association  which  had  Lady  DuflFerin, 
the  Viceroy's  wife, as  its  first  President,  and  which  is  "one  of 
the  most  important  humane  efforts  of  the  present  century." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  value  of  medical 
missions  in  breaking  down  prejudices  and  in  gaining  a 
hearing  for  the  Gospel  in  caste-bound  India.  They  had 
their  part,  we  saw,  in  winning  the  first  Serampore  convert, 
and  few  missions  are  felt  to  be  properly  equipped  without 
the  medical  department.  A  leader  in  this  branch  was  John 
Scudder  (1819-1855),  a  foremost  physician  of  New  York, 
than  whom,  says  Dr.  Smith,  "  no  stronger,  more  versatile, 
or  more  successful  missionary  pioneer  ever  evangelised  a 
people  as  healer,  preacher,  teacher,  and  translator."  His 
name  has  become  a  household  word  through  his  seven 
sons  and  his  descendants  to  the  fourth  generation,  who 
have  been  missionaries  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church's 
Arcot  field.  For  the  special  training  of  medical  mission- 
aries, schools  have  been  established  in   the  home -lands, 


A    Ml:SSION    IJ 


120  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

such  as  that  of  the  Edinburgh  Medical  Missionary  Society, 
founded  by  the  famous  Dr.  Abercrombie.  The  Society  was 
long  under  the  care  of  the  late  Dr.  Lowe.  It  has  a  branch 
school  at  Agra  under  Dr.  Valentine  for  the  training  of 
Indian    Christians.     Mission    dispensaries    and    hospitals 

are  numerous,  and  their 
direct  influence  is  extended 
by  the  training  and  medi- 
cine given  to  non-c[ualified 
itinerant  native  workers, 
who,  though  unable  to  treat 
serious  cases,  can  wdth  their 
aid  follow  better  in  the 
steps  of  the  Great  Physi- 
cian, and  successfully  give  relief  in  the  more  common 
forms  of  sickness. 

The  infinite  variety  oi  Indian  life  requires  other  methods 
of  missionary  work  than  those  already  mentioned.  These 
are  determined  by  the  necessity  of  getting  alongside  of 
the  people  and  taking  advantage  of  their  line  of  chief 
interest.  The  crowds  in  the  streets  and  bazaars,  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  brought  together  by  the  religious 
melas  or  fairs  like  Hurdwar  and  iiUahabad,  the  open  doors 
in  the  750,000  villages — these  suggest  open-air  preach- 
ing and  itinerating  as  calling  for  a  large,  if  not  the  chief 
measure  of  attention,  and  have  produced  great  vernacular 
preachers  like  Ward  at  Serampore,  Chamberlain  at  Agra, 
Lacroix  at  Calcutta,  Ragland  in  the  Madras  Presidency, 
and  others  too  numerous  to  mention.  Orphanages  are  the 
ex[)ression  of  the  desire  to  save  the  helpless  children,  such 
as  that  of  the  General  P)aptists  in  Orissa  for  the  little  ones 
destined  for  the  cruel  Meriah  sacrifices,  or  at  Agra(Secundra) 
for  the  victims  of  those  terrible  famines  which  frequently 
devastate  the  land.  The  hopeless  sufferings  of  the  lepers 
appealed  to  the  Piev.  J.  H.  Budden  of  Almorah,  Dr.  John 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  121 

Newton  of  Subathu,  and  others,  who  carried  on  a  Christ- 
like and  successful  work  amongst  those  poor  outcasts  ; 
and  now  asylums  for  them  are  established  at  many 
centres,  helped  or  entirely  supported  by  the  Mission  to 
the  Lepers,  whose  founder  and  Secretary,  Mr.  Wellesley 
Bailey,  testifies  thus  of  the  hundreds  of  letter  Christians  : 
"  My  own  experience  is  this,  that  we  have  had  amongst 
them  some  of  the  brightest  converts  we  have  ever  made 
among  any  class  of  the  community."  Since  Carey's  two 
sons  started  the  first  Sunday  School  in  India,  that  agency 
has  been  greatly  developed,  notably  by  such  American 
missionaries  as  the  late  Dr.  J.  L.  Phillips  ;  and  the  Indian 
Sunday  School  Union  reports  5365  Sunday  Schools,  with 
207,753  scholars.  The  mass  of  the  people  of  India  live 
by  agriculture,  and  many  missionaries  have  followed  the 
example  of  helpful  interest  set  by  Carey  when  he  founded 
the  Agricultural  and  Horticultural  Society  of  India.  In 
aland,  too,  where  caste  works  on  the  lines  of  an  exaggerated 
form  of  trades  unionism,  it  has  often  been  necessary  to 
help  the  converts  whose  loss  of  caste  on  their  confession 
of  Christ  has  led  to  the  loss  of  employment.  This  has 
frequently  been  done  by  establishing  Christian  villages. 
For  the  same  purpose  industries  have  been  started,  and 
good  examples  of  these  are  found  in  the  weaving  estab- 
lishments of  the  Basel  Evangelical  Mission  at  Caunanore 
and  Mangalore. 

The  numerous  methods  employed  are  mutually  help- 
ful, and  in  view  of  the  different  circumstances  to  be  met, 
it  would  be  invidious  to  set  one  method  against  another. 
Moreover,  the  method  is  of  less  importance  than  the  man. 
India  has  room  for  men  and  women  with  the  most  varied 
gifts  —  Christian  statesmen  and  scholars  like  Schwartz, 
and  Carey,  and  Duff,  but  also  for  humble  and  unknown 
workers,  even  the  Salvation  Army  Lass.  It  wants  men 
like  Bishop  Thoburn,  with  an  outlook  as  wide  as  India 


122  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

itself,  and  also  such  as  the  saintly  George  Bowen  of 
Bombay,  to  whose  self-sacrificing  devotion,  said  Dr. 
Hanna,  "  there  is  perhaps  no  existing  parallel  in  the 
whole  field  of  mission  labour,"  a  man  who  has  enriched  the 
world  by  his  devotional  writings,  yet  one  who  could  claim 
few,  if  any  direct  converts  as  the  fruits  of  his  long  life. 

The  four  great  caste  divisions  of  Hinduism,  with 
thousands  of  sub -divisions,  are  the  Brahmans,  the 
Kshatriyas,  the  Vaisyas,  and  the  Sudrcis,  supposed  to 
have  come  respectively  from  the  mouth,  the  arms,  the 
thighs,  and  the  feet  of  Brahma  the  Creator.  They 
indicate  the  "brain  power,  the  armed  hands,  the  food 
growers,  and  the  serfs."  Below  them  in  the  social  scale 
are  fifty  millions  of  depressed  low-caste  peoples,  sometimes 
called  Panchamas,  or  the  fifth  caste,  who  are  "treated  as 
the  lepers  and  offscouring  of  the  earth,  whose  touch  is 
pollution,  denied  the  right  to  live  in  the  villages,  to  draw 
water  from  the  wells,  to  attend  the  schools,  and  sometimes 
even  to  share  with  others  the  use  of  the  public  roads" 
{Primer  of  Modern  Missions).  These  are  returned  in  the 
Census  Reports  as  Hindus,  though  they  are  rather  demon- 
olaters,  who  are  being  gradually  absorbed  by  Hinduism, 
and  will,  according  to  Sir  William  Hunte(r,  be  fully 
absorbed  by  that  system  or  by  Mohammedanism  within 
fifty  years,  if  they  do  not  previously  become  Christian. 
It  is  from  those  non- Aryan  peoples,  who  are  not  as  yet  so 
firmly  fettered  by  caste  rules,  that  the  greater  number  of 
Christian  converts  have  been  won. 

Among  the  Tamil-speaking  Panchamas  there  has  been 
a  remarkable  ingathering,  for  example  by  the  two  great 
Anglican  Societies  in  Tinnevelly,  where  the  work  was 
begun  by  Schwartz's  catechists,  followed  by  Gericke, 
Jaenicke,  and  others,  and  was  revived  by  Rhenius  through 
the  interest  of  Hough,  the  devoted  chaplain  and  Christian 
historian.     The  majority  of  the  Christians  are  from  the 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  123 

-Shanar.s,  avIio  form  one -fifth  of  the  population.  Their 
chief  occupation  is  to  climb  the  palmyra  trees  for  the  sap, 
which  forms  a  sta[)le  food  of  the  inhabitants.  Thousands 
of  villages  are  now  distinctively  Christian.  The  Chris- 
tian community  (now  about  80,000  baptized)  has  been 
thoroughly  organised  into  churches,  under  such  leaders 
as  the  late  Bishops  Caldwell  and  Sargent.  Many  of  the 
churches  are  self-governing  and  self-supporting,  and  in 
no  mission-field  in  any  part  of  the  world  has  the  native 
ordained  pastorate  been  so  largely  developed,  there  being 
at  present  about  130  labouring  in 
the  province.  The  Madras  Census 
Report  of  1871  stated  : — 

Under  native  rule  the  Slianars  were 
a  down  -  trodden  race  ;  under  Christian 
teaching  and  enlightenment  their  social 
position  is  vastly  improved,  and  many  of 
them  now  liold  positions  of  influence  and 
respectability.  .  .  .  Some  of  the  Christian 
converts  from  this  caste  have  graduated 
in  the  JMadras  University. 

At  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
peninsula  the  London  Missionary 
Society  has  also  had  a  most  successful  Tamil  work, 
which  was  begun  and  continued  by  the  devoted  but 
eccentric  Lutheran  clergyman,  Ringeltaube,  till  his  mys- 
terious disapi^earance  in  1815.  From  Nagercoil  and 
Neyoor,  in  the  south  of  the  native  State  of  Travancore, 
a  large  area  has  been  influenced,  and  there  are  now  56,753 
adherents,  of  whom  26,792  have  been  baptized,  21  native 
pastors,  and  336  schools.  The  result  upon  the  position  of 
the  people  has  been  similar  to  that  in  Tinnevelly,  as 
testified  by  the  Travancore  census  officer,  w^ho  was  a 
native  and  not  a  Christian  : — 

The  large  community  of  native  Christians  are  rapidly  advancing 


Bishop  Caldwell. 


124  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

in  their  moral,  intellectual,  and  material  condition.  .  .  .  But  for 
them  [the  missionaries]  the  humbler  orders  of  Hindu  society  would 
for  ever  remain  unraised. 

In  one  particular  the  missionaries  had  to  fight  a  long 
battle  for  decency  and  liberty.  Formerly  the  women  of 
the  humbler  orders  in  Travancore  were  forbidden  to  wear 
any  clothing  above  the  waist,  but  those  who  came  under 
the  elevating  influence  of  Christianity  felt  this  unbecom- 
ing and  began  to  wear  a  loose  jacket.  The  caste  women 
regarded  this  as  a  gross  insult  to  them,  and  for  three 
years  (1827-1830)  a  bitter  persecution  lasted.  "Women 
were  beaten  and  their  clothing  insultingly  torn  off,  .  .  . 
chapels  and  school-rooms  were  burned  and  torn  down,  and 
the  erection  of  new  ones  forcibly  hindered."  The  Travan- 
core Government  sided  with  the  objectors,  and  it  was  not 
till  1859,  when  the  Madras  Government  was  moved  by 
renewed  lawlessness  to  remonstrate  with  the  Travancore 
Government,  that  the  Shan^ir  women  were  allowed  to  wear 
an  upper  cloth,  and  even  then  the  caste  distinction  was 
maintained  by  the  provision  that  it  must  be  a  coarse  one. 

Almost  more  striking  have  been  the  movements  among 
the  Telegu  Panchamas,  whose  rival  sects  are  known  as 
Malas  and  Madigas.  Among  the  former  the  Church  and 
London  Missionary  Societies  have  had  large  ingatherings, 
but  the  most  remarkable  has  been  that  of  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union.  For  thirty  years  the  Union 
had  carried  on  a  solitary  station  at  Nellore,  termed  the 
"Lone  Star  Mission,"  because  it  stood  so  long  isolated  in 
the  Society's  mission  map ;  and  its  continued  fruitlessness 
more  than  once  almost  led  to  its  abandonment.  But  the 
earnest  pleading  of  the  venerable  missionary,  Jewett, 
saved  it,  and  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Clough  was  sent  to  join 
him  in  1865,  when  there  were  not  more  than  twenty-five 
Telegu  converts.  A  new  station  was  founded  at  Ongole. 
Success  soon  followed.     By  1874  there  were  nearly  4000 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  125 

members.  Then  came  the  great  famine,  accompanied  hy 
disease,  and  Mr.  Clongh,  who  was  a  trained  engineer,  was 
enabled  by  his  relief  camps  to  do  sjJendid  work  in  saving 
life.  The  opportunity  was  not  lost  of  preaching  Christ, 
and  when,  after  the  famine  pressure,  Mr.  Clough  took 
ap  his  regular  mission  duties,  thousands  began  to  ask  for 
baptism.  These  seem  to  have  been  thoroughly  tested. 
Between  15th  June  and  31st  July  1878  no  fewer  than 
8691  were  baptized,  and  of  these  2222  were  immersed  in 
one  day.  The  movement  has  gone  steadily  forward,  and 
there  is  now  said  to  be  a  Christian  community  of  over 
100,000,  notwith- 
standing inevitable 
apostasy.  The  work 
among  the  higher 
castes  has  also  pro- 
gressed at  the  same 
time,  showing  that 
to-day,  as  through- 
out the  Christian 
centuries,  the  leaven 
usually  works  from  ciuiinAs  of  mv.  ri  nim.. 

below  upward.  From  Fortu  Years  of  the  Punjab  Mission  nj ihv  rhxrch 

Still      more      ex-  o/Sco^and,  by  Dr.  Youngson. 

tensive  as  to  area  are  the  efforts  of  the  American 
Methodist  Episcoj^al  Church  to  reach  the  Chamars  and 
other  depressed  classes  of  North  India.  Thousands  are 
being  received  into  the  Church  every  year,  and  the 
numbers  are  only  limited  by  the  power  of  the  mission's 
resources  to  test  and  teach  the  ai)plicants.  In  the 
Punjab,  too,  many  thousands  have  been  gained  from 
among  the  Chuhras,  of  whom  Dr.  Youngson,  a  missionary 
of  more  than  twenty  years'  experience,  writes  :  "  Now  it  is 
plain  that  the  thousands  living  in  separate  communities 
in  our  Punjab  villages  will  all  become  Christian," 


126 


MISSIONARY  EXrANSION 


In  such  mass  movements  there  are,  no  doubt,  dangers. 
Many  are  impelled  by  the  desire  to  find  in  Christianity 
a  means  of  raising  their  hopeless  condition.  But  that  in 
itself  is  a  legitimate  and  commendable  motive,  and  the 
missionaries  cannot  refuse  to  put  such  people  under  in- 
struction, reserving  to  themselves  the  liberty  of  baptizing 
only  those  who,  after  a  due  j^robation,  are  found  satis- 
factory. The  Bombay 
Decennial  Missionary 
Conference  of  1893,  in 
pleading  urgency  for  the 
evangelisation  of  those 
depressed  classes,  stated : 
"  Whatever  admixture 
of  less  spiritual  motives 
may  exist,  God  Himself 
is  stirring  their  hearts 
and  turning  their 
thoughts  toward  the 
things  which  belong  to 
His  kingdom."  And  as 
Bishop  Thoburn  says : 
"The  converts  may  be 
from  the  ranks  of  the 
lowly,  but  the  lowly  of  this  century  will  be  the  leaders 
of  the  next.  The  Brahman  must  accept  Christ,  or  see  the 
Pariah  walk  past  him  in  the  race  of  progress." 

The  Panchamas  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  Hindu  social 
system,  but  the  nine  or  ten  millions  of  non-Aryan  ab- 
original tribes,  chiefly  dwelling  in  the  hill  tracts,  live 
apart  from  the  great  religious  systems,  although  among 
them,  too,  a  Hinduising  process  slowly  progresses.  Among 
those  casteless  and  semi -civilised  demonolaters  much 
success  has  attended  mission  work,  more  particularly 
amoncr  the  Kols  and  Santals   of   Lower  Bengal.     Pastor 


A  KoL  Catechist  and  Family. 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS  127 

Gossner  of  Berlin  sent  missionaries  to  the  K61s  of  Chota 
Nagpur,  and  their  first  settlement  was  at  Ranchi  in  1846, 
where  four  out  of  the  six  men  soon  fell  victims  to  the  clim- 
ate. For  five  years  there  was  no  evident  fruit,  and  when  it 
did  appear,  it  was  on  a  very  moderate  scale.  The  new  con- 
verts had  a  terrible  experience  during  the  Mutiny  troubles. 
Some  were  put  to  death,  and  a  plan  for  their  extermina- 
tion was  only  averted  by  the  timely  arrival  of  British 
troops.  The  time  of  persecution,  ho^vever,  was  one  of 
blessing,  and  the  sixty  villages  which  contained  Chris- 
tians before  the  Mutiny  had  increased  to  130  by 
September  1858.  Ten  years  later  over  11,000  had  been 
baptized.  A  dispute  with  the  home  Committee  led  the 
older  missionaries  and  a  section  of  the  Christians  to  join 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  and  now  the 
two  Societies  report  a  total  community  of  63,000. 

The  mission  of  the  Welsh  Calvinistic  Church  to  the 
wild  tribes  of  the  Khasia  Hills  of  Assam  is  typical  of  others 
to  the  aborigines.  Beginning  in  1840,  it  has  now  a 
Christian  community  of  more  than  9000  at  many  centres. 
The  Government  gives  the  mission  a  monopoly  of  the 
education  in  the  hills  through  large  money  grants,  and 
besides  the  higher-grade  schools,  the  missionaries  conduct 
not  less  than  250  primary-grade  schools  with  Christian 
teachers.  This  mission  sufi'ered  the  loss  of  all  its  build- 
ings through  the  severe  earthquake  of  1897. 

The  growth  of  the  native  Protestant  Church  will  be 
seen  at  a  glance  from  the  following  official  statistics  pre- 
pared for  the  last  Decennial  Conference  (1891)  i^ — 

1851.     1871.       1881.  1890. 

Adherents  (i.e.  baptized  and  Catechumens)  91,092  224,258  417,372  559,661 

Communicants  or  church  members   .        .  15,129    52,816   113,325  182,722 

Catechists  and  native  preachers        .        .        600       1983        2488  3491 

Ordained  native  ministers ....         48        226         461  797 

^  These  figures  are  exclusive  of  Burma  and  Ceylon,  which  have 
between  them  110,000  adherents. 


128  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  adult  baptisms  in  the 
year  1890  included  15  Buddhists,  200  to  250  Moham- 
medans, 28,000  demon- worshippers,  and  16,800  Hindus 
of  all  castes. 

A  full  and  exact  statement  regarding  the  spiritual  condi- 
tion of  the  native  church  in  India  is  not  possible.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  would  be  easy  to  take  individual  cases  of  men 
and  women  who  have  exhibited  the  ripest  fruits  of  Christian 
experience,  and  who,  in  apostolic  fervour  and  patient  suffer- 
ing for  Christ's  sake,  might  be  placed  in  the  front  ranks  of 
Christian  saints.  On  the  other  hand,  we  might  point  to 
large  numbers  but  yesterday  out  of  the  thraldom  of  grossest 
idolatry  or  debasing  devil  worship,  who  as  yet  are  ignorant 
and  weak,  and  upon  whom  the  shadow  of  the  old  customs  still 
rests.  When  Rhenius  was  asked  regarding  the  converts  at 
the  beginning  of  the  great  mass  movement  in  Tinnevelly, 
"Are  all  these  two  thousand  families  true  Christians?" 
his  reply  was,  "  We  do  not  hesitate  to  answer.  No,  not 
all.  They  are  a  mixture,  as  our  Saviour  foretold  that 
His  Church  would  be."  "But,"  he  added,  "all  have  re- 
nounced idolatry  and  the  service  of  devils,  and  put  them- 
selves and  families  under  Christian  instruction,  to  learn  to 
worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  And  is  not  this  a 
great  blessing  to  them  ? "  Principal  Sir  Wm.  Muir  has 
testified  of  the  Indian  Christians  that  "they  are  not 
sham  or  paper  converts,  as  some  would  have  us  believe, 
but  good  and  honest  Christians,  and  many  of  them  of  a 
high  staTidard."  As  far  as  criminal  statistics  go,  they  tell 
in  favour  of  the  Christians,  for  in  a  return  for  Southern 
India  it  was  stated  that,  while  there  was  one  criminal  to 
every  447  and  728  of  the  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  popula- 
tion respectively,  there  was  only  one  in  every  2500  of  the 
Christians.  A  proof  of  the  growing  spirituality  is  found 
in  the  relative  increase  of  the  number  of  communicants, 
^nd  also  in  the  increased  efforts  on  the  i)art  of  the  native 


THE  HINDUS  AND  THP:iR  NEIGHBOURS  129 

Christians  for  self-supporting  churches  and  for  the  evan- 
gelisation of  needier  districts. 

The  indirect  results  of  missions  in  India  have  to  be 
borne  in  mind.  The  India  of  to-day  is  very  different  from 
that  which  Carey  found.  The  light  of  Christian  civilisa- 
tion is  putting  to  flight  many  of  the  grosser  superstitions 
and  evils.  Christian  education  has  completely  altered  the 
outlook  of  educated  India  on  moral  and  social  questions. 
Christian  teaching  has  led  to  such  movements  as  the 
Bralimo  Somaj,  orTlieistic  Church, 
which  was  founded  by  Ram  Mohan 
Roy  in  1830,  and  presided  over 
since  his  death  by  the  late  Keshab 
Chunder  Sen,  and  now  by  P.  C. 
Mozumdar.  The  Hindu  counter- 
Reformation,  which  aims  at  going 
back  to  the  purer  teaching  of  the 
Vedas,  is  born  of  contact  with 
Christianity,  but  its  motive  is  one 
of  opposition    to    Christian    mis-  bishop  thoburn. 

T      ..      .  1  From  his  India  and  Malaysia. 

sions,    and    it    is    perhaps    more 

national  than  religious.     One  of  India's  most  experienced 

missionaries,   Bishop  Thoburn,  writes  : — 

All  India  is  ra[)idly  changing.  The  fetters  of  caste  are  weaken- 
ing. Hindus  and  thousands  of  the  people  who  escliew  the  Christian 
name  are  rapidly  imbibing  tlie  Christian  spirit.  .  .  .  The  spirit  of 
Christ  is  beginning  wonderfully  to  pervade  the  more  intelligent 
part  of  the  community. 

Some  people  seem  to  see  signs  of  a  great  national  move- 
ment towards  Christ,  expecting  for  all  India  what  Dr. 
Norman  Macleod  on  his  death-bed  dreamt  had  happened 
in  the  Punjab.  "  I  have  had  such  a  glorious  dream  !  I 
thought  the  whole  Punjab  was  suddenly  Christianised,  and 
such  noble  fellows,  with  their  native  churches  and  clergy ! " 
Others  would  still  expect  a  long  period  of  gradual  prepara- 

9 


130 


MISSIOXARY  EXPANSION 


tion  before  the  time  of  rapid  development.  But  whatever 
be  the  divine  plan,  a  foretaste  of  what  will  be  has  been 
already  experienced  in  many  places.  A  spectator  thus  de- 
scribed the  opening  of  a  mission  church  in  the  Punjab  : — 

It  was  a  wonderful  sight.  Side  by  side  with  the  poor  outcast 
labourer  and  the  Hindu  convert  knelt  the  rich  landowner  ;  the 
miserable  superstition  of  the  one  and  the  severe  ]\Iohaniniedanism 
of.  the  other  were  alike  things  of  the  past,  and  the  proud  ex- 
Mohammedan  and  outcasted  Choora,  having  looked  into  the  face 
of  Jesus,  the  Elder  Brother,  looked  on  one  another  and  found  they 
too  were  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  was  an  object  lesson,  and  one  on 
the  learning  of  which  depends  the  unification  of  India. 

India  won  for  Christ  would  mean  that  He  who  is  the 
Light  of  the  World  would  soon  come  to  be  regarded  as 
the  Light  of  Asia,  for,  as  Dr.  George  Smith  says  :— 

India  is  the  key  to  all  South  and  Central  Asia.  The  complete 
conquest  of  the  Brahman  and  the  Mohammedan  of  India  by  the 
Cross  will  be  to  all  Asia  what  the  submission  of  Constantine  was  to 
the  Roman  Empire — in  hoc  signo  vincimus. 


Benares,  the  Sacred  City  of  the  Hindus. 


fr ,.  .1  "")■  ^■*"  ■■•3^.'  ^'J  /.  I  "^^-"i-  «^' 


-lit.  .,■ 


t 


CH1NA&  JAPAN 


H 


4„ 


•    •'4r-J>' 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BUDDHIST    LANDS 

Buddha  has  been 
named  "The  Light 
of  Asia."  "A  Light 
of  Eastern  Asia " 
would  be  more  cor- 
rect. With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  Kal- 
muc  Tartars  on  the 
Volga,  the  Buddhists 
are  confined  to  the 
eastern  part  of  the 
continent,  and  even 
there  Buddhism  is 
but  one  of  a  num- 
ber of  religious  sys- 
tems. The  estimated 
number  of  Buddha's 
disciples  varies  from  80  or  90  to  500  millions,  the  wide 
difference  being  chiefly  due  to  the  conflicting  religious 
classification  of  the  Chinese,  who  affect  Confucianism, 
Taoism,  and  Buddhism  alike,  but  the  great  mass  of  whom 
would  elect  to  be  called  Confucianists  if  required  to 
choose  one  of  the  systems.  Professor  Monier  "Williams 
says  :  "  The  best  authorities  are  of  opinion  that  there  are 


\n     ih  S  1     l>l   I  1  Hlii      J  I   MM  I      VI     1j(   I   I   M  1    Ci  \\  T, 

Im)I\    a-,   RfsroRFD    IS   1SS4       (Supposed  to 
occupy  the  site  of  the  historic  Bo-tree.) 
From  Sir  M.  Monier  Williams's  BuddhLim. 


132  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

not  more  than  100  millions  of  real  Buddhists  in  the 
world."  There  can,  however,  be  no  question  of  the  great 
indirect,  if  not  direct  influence  for  good  of  the  teaching, 
and  still  more  of  the  life,  of  Gautama,  "  The  Buddha  "  or 
"  The  Enlightened,"  upon  a  large  section  of  the  human 
race. 

Doubts  have  been  cast  upon  the  historical  reality  of 
Gautama.  The  story  of  his  life  has  been  loaded  with 
absurd  and  puerile  fabrications  of  pious  followers.  Yet 
under  those  accretions  we  can  still  trace  the  beautiful 
figure  of  the  son  of  Kapilavastu's  king,  born  about  500  B.C., 
one  hundred  miles  north-west  of  Benares.  We  see  him — 
weighed  down  with  a  sense  of  life's  sorrows  and  enigmas 
— making  the  "  Great  Kenunciation  "  of  his  high  worldly 
prospects  and  comforts ;  donning  the  dress  of  a  wandering 
beggar  ;  vainly  endeavouring  by  years  of  severe  asceticism 
to  gain  inward  peace  ;  at  length,  as  he  sat  under  the 
"Bo"  tree,  attaining  spiritual  enlightenment  through 
the  questionable  discovery  "that  suffering  is  to  be  got 
rid  of  by  the  suppression  of  desires,  and  by  extinction  of 
personal  existence."  ^  Finally,  we  can  follow  him  as  he 
went  about  for  forty-five  years  teaching  his  sublime  moral 
precepts  till,  under  the  Sal  tree,  he  died  with  a  group  of 
devoted  disciples  around  him. 

Buddha  was  a  great  religious  reformer  who  protested 
against  the  weary  round  of  ceremonies  and  sacrifices  of 
the  Brahmanical  priesthood,  and  emphasised  the  moral  and 
social  side  of  human  life.  But  Buddha  did  not  reveal 
God,  and  from  his  system  all  the  God-ward  precepts  of 
the  Mosaic  system  are  awanting.  His  dying  charge  to 
his  disciples  contained  the  words :  "In  future  be  ye  to 
yourselves  your  own  light,  your  own  refuge ;  seek  no 
other  refuge."  So  the  people  of  Buddhist  lands,  while 
profoundly  revering  Gautama,  have  sought  in  other 
^  Monier  Williams. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  133 

channels  to  satisfy  the  one  great  longing  of  the  human  heart, 
with  results  stated  thus  by  Principal  Grant :  ^  "  Originally 
a  system  of  Humanitarianism  with  no  future  life  and  no 
God  higher  than  the  perfect  man,  it  has  become  a  vast 
jungle  of  contradictory  principles  and  of  popular  idolatry, 
the  mazes  of  which  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  tread." 
The  similarity  of  many  of  Buddha's  precepts  to  those  of 
Christ  has  been  often  emphasised.  "In  no  religion," 
writes  Professor  Max  Miiller,  "are  we  so  constantly 
reminded  of  our  own  as  in  Buddhism,  and  yet  in  no 
religion  has  man  been  so  far  drawn  away  from  the  truth 
as  in  the  religion  of  Buddha." 

Buddhism  would  long  ago  have  passed  away  had  it  not 
been  a  missionary  religion  in  its  early  centuries,  for,  as  we 
have  seen,  Brahmanism,  with  a  long  and  gradually  tighten- 
ing embrace,  "  took  it  to  its  arms  and  sucked  out  its  life 
blood," — but  not  until  Buddhism  had  been  firmly  planted 
beyond  the  land  of  its  birth.  About  250  B.C.  Asoka,  a 
powerful  king  of  Northern  India,  who  is  often  termed  the 
Buddhist  Constantine,  summoned  a  council  to  determine 
the  Buddhist  Canon.  This  Canon  his  own  son  and 
daughter  bore  to  Ceylon,  where  they  successfully  planted 
the  faith.  From  Ceylon  Buddhism  spread  to  Burma  in 
the  fifth  century  a.d.,  and  to  Siam  and  Cambodia  two 
centuries  later.  China  received  the  faith  from  India  in 
71  A.D.,  and  Japan  through  Korea  in  the  sixth  century. 
It  was  established  in  Tibet  in  the  seventh  century,  and 
thence  penetrated  Mongolia.  In  one  and  all  of  these 
countries  Buddhism  has  shown  a  wonderful  power  of 
consorting  with  the  previously  existing  religions — with 
the  idolatry  of  the  Hindus,  the  demon  worship  of  the 
aborigines  of  Ceylon,  the  Confucianism  and  Taoism  of 
China,  the  Shintoism  of  Japan,  and  the  Shamanism  of 
Tibet  and  Mongolia.  It  "developed  apparently  contra- 
1  The  Religions  of  the  World  (Revell). 


134 


MISSIONARY  EXrANSION 


dictory  systems  in  different  countries  and  under  varying 
climatic  conditions.  In  no  two  countries  did  it  preserve 
the  same  features."  Thus  it  can  to-day  be  seen  in  all  its 
stages,  from  the  most  superstitious  forms  of  Tibetan 
Lamaism  to  the  almost  Christian  doctrine  of  Justification 
by  faith  in  the  Amida  incarnation  of  Buddha  held  by  the 
reformed  Hongwanji  sect  in  Japan. 


Southern  Buddhism 

1.   Ceylon.^ 

Ceylon  is  the  chief 
centre  of  southern 
Buddhism.  Pilgrims 
come  from  Burma, 
Siam,  and  Cambodia 
to  visit  the  temple  at 
Kandy,  which  contains 
the  supposed  tooth  of 
Buddha,  and  to  pay 
homage  to  the  relic, 
which  consists  of  a 
piece  of  yellow  ivory 
two  inches  long,  and 
of  the  breadth  of  a 
forefinger.  Of  the 
three       millions      of 

BRASS  Image  OF  Gautama  Buddha  FROM  Ceylon.   People  in  Ceylon  two- 

Frontispiece  of  Sir  M.  Monier  Williams's  thirds    are   Buddhists. 

Buddhism.  rpjjQgg      ^j.^     ^jjg      g-j^. 

halese,  descendants  of  conquerors  who  came  from  the 
Ganges  valley  about  the  time  of  Gautama's  birth,  not  far 
from  Kapilavastu  itself. 

^  For  Ceylon  and  Burma  consult  map  of  India. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  135 

The  baneful  influence  of  the  failure  of  the  earlier 
attempts  to  Christianise  Ceylon  (see  p.  35)  is  still  felt,  and 
has  increased  the  difficulties  of  later  workers.  Success, 
however,  has  been  attained  among  all  sections  of  the 
population,  including  the  migratory  coolies  of  the  tea  and 
coffee  plantations.  The  census  of  1891  gives  the  number 
of  Christians  as  300,000,  or  10  per  cent  of  the  whole. 
Of  these  about  five -sixths  are  returned  as  Roman 
Catholics.  There  must  be  many  nondescript  Christians 
in  the  island,  for  the  Protestant  missions  only  claim  half 
of  the  remaining  50,000.  Much  evidence  of  life  is  mani- 
fested in  the  churches,  and  native  societies  engage  in 
evangelising  the  more  needy  regions.  Mr.  John  Ferguson, 
the  editor  of  the  chief  English  paper  in  Ceylon,  gave  this 
testimony  on  the  strength  of  intimate  personal  knowledge 
of  the  mission  work  : — 

I  have  astonished  English  and  American  friends  by  telling 
them  of  villages  and  districts  in  Ceylon  where  Tanuls  and 
Sinhalese  are  as  earnest  and  practical  Christians  as  any  in  England 
or  America  .  .  .  and  of  Sinhalese  and  Tamil  villages  where  the 
people  have  their  own  pastors,  of  their  own  race  and  locally 
snpported,  their  Sunday  schools  and  day  schools.  I  believe  that 
the  progress  of  Christianity  here  will  not  be  in  an  arithmetical 
but  in  a  geometrical  progression  before  long,  so  that  we  may  see 
Christianity  permeate  the  whole  island. 


2.  Burma 

The  whole  of  the  rich  province  of  Burma  was  gradu- 
ally brought  under  British  rule  after  the  three  .wars  (1824, 
1852,  and  1885),  which  were  occasioned  by  the  bluster  or 
treachery  of  its  arrogant  despots.  Eighty-six  per  cent  of 
its  nine  million  inhabitants  are  Buddhists.  The  remainder 
are  chiefly  demonolatrous  Karen  tribes,  who  were  held  in 
cruel  subjection  by  the  old  rulers. 

We    saw    (p.    94)    how    Adoniram    Judson    and    his 


136 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


devoted  wife,  Ann  Hasseltine,  were  led  to  Rangoon  in 
1813.  No  page  in  the  annals  of  missions  is  more 
romantic  or  pathetic  than  the  experience  of  the  Judsons 
and  their  colleagues.  Judson's  first  years  were  given 
to  hard  work  at  the  language.  He  had  a  long  and 
trying  time  to  wait  for  any  visible  result,  yet  in  the 
darkest  hour  he  could  write,  "  If  any  ask  again  what 
promise  of  ultimate  success,  tell  them  as  much  as  that 
there  is  an  almighty  and  faith- 
ful God,  who  will  perform  His 
promises,  and  no  more."  Not 
till  1819  could  he  open  his  first 
zayat  or  preaching  house.  That 
same  year  the  first  convert, 
Moung  Nan,  was  baptized, 
notwithstanding  the  possible 
penalty  of  death.  An  advance 
was  made  to  Ava.  When  the 
first  Burmese  war  broke  out, 
Judson  and  his  colleague,  Price, 
From  CoiKimsu  of  the  Cross  (Casseii  were  loaded  with  chains  and  cast 
into  the  death  prison,  where  they 
endured  indescribable  suflferings.  The  heroic  Mrs.  Judson, 
though  free,  suffered  quite  as  much.  A  beautiful  picture  is 
drawn  of  her  as  she,  sowing  the  seeds  of  an  early  death, 
followed  her  husband  "  from  prison  to  prison,  ministering 
to  his  wants,  trying  to  soften  the  hearts  of  his  keepers 
to  mitigate  his  sufferings,  interceding  with  Government 
officials  or  Avith  members  of  the  royal  family.  For  a  year 
and  a  half  she  thus  exerted  herself,  walking  miles  in  feeble 
health,  in  the  darkness  of  the  night  or  under  a  noonday 
sun,  much  of  the  time  with  a  babe  in  her  arms."  Sir 
Archibald  Campbell's  victories  secured  the  release  of  the 
captives.  For  thirty-seven  years  Judson  carried  on  those 
labours  which  were  summed  up  in  the  memorial  tablet  in 


Adonira-m  Judson. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  137 

his  native  town  :  "  ^lalclen  his  birthplace,  the  ocean  his 
sepulchre,  converted  Burnians  and  the  Burman  Bible  his 
monument,  his  record  on  high."  No  fewer  than  forty-one 
devoted  American  Baptists  had  died  in  the  Burman  field 
up  to  the  year  1856. 

The  Karens  had  certain  traditions  which  made  them 
peculiarly  receptive  of  the  Gospel  The  first  Karen  convert, 
Ko-Thah-byu,  was  baptized  by  Boardman  in  1828.  He  was 
an  emancipated  slave  of  fifty  years  of  age  who  had  led  a  life 
of  violence  and  vice.  The  transformation  in  his  character 
was  miraculous.  Preaching  became  his  passion,  and  until 
his  death  in  1840  he  carried  on  an  apostolic  work  among 
his  own  people.  The  jubilee  of  his  baptism  was  commemo- 
rated by  the  native  Christians  in  the  great  Ko-Thah-byu 
Memorial  Hall.  A  rich  harvest  was  reaped  in  the  face  of 
fierce  persecution.  In  one  district  "the  converts  were 
beaten,  chained,  fined,  imprisoned,  sold  as  slaves,  tortured, 
and  put  to  death,  hut  not  one  ajMstatiseciy  Nine-tenths 
of  the  converts  in  Burma  are  from  the  Karens.  Each  of 
their  500  parishes  has  its  own  native  pastor  and  schools, 
and  they  conduct  a  vigorous  mission  to  the  non-Christians. 
The  Government  Administration  Eeport  of  1880-81  stated 
that  "  Christianity  continues  to  spread  among  the  Karens, 
to  the  great  advantage  of  the  commonwealth,  and  the 
Christian  communities  are  distinctly  more  industrious, 
better  educated,  and  more  law-abiding  than  the  Burman 
and  Karen  villages  around  them."  A  missionary  once 
prophesied  that  "the  Karen  race,  with  the  Burmese  lan- 
guage, will  be  the  great  evangelising  force  in  Burma,"  and 
the  latest  accounts  from  the  field  go  to  show  that  these 
words  are  coming  true.  The  once  despised  hill -men 
are  influencing  and  evangelising  their  former  masters. 
There  were  in  Burma  in  1895,  in  connection  with  the 
Baptists,  Propagation  Society,  and  other  bodies,  148 
missionaries,   710   native  helpers,   600   churches,   33,337 


138 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


communicants  (of  whom  2187  were  baptized  in  1894). 
Burma  may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most 
hopeful  of  the  mission-fields,  and  one  which  promises  wide 
influence  upon  North  India  and  upon  Cliina,  whose  "  back 
door  "  it  has  been  called. 


3.  Slam  ^ 

Siam,  with  a  population  of  5,000,000,  is  the  only  re- 
maining independent  kingdom  of  the  Indo-China  penin- 

P -_ . -_-,^    sula.       The    eastern 

I  })ortion  of  the  penin- 

sula is  now  under 
French  influence,  and 
contains  no  Pro- 
testant mission.  In 
Siam  proper  and  in 
the  six  tributary 
Laos  provinces  of 
the  north,  three- 
fourths  of  the  people 
are  of  the  Shan  race 
and  of  Buddhist  re- 
ligion, largely  intermingled  (especially  among  the  Laos) 
with  the  worship  of  evil  spirits.  Dr.  Karl  Giitzlaff,  of 
the  Netherlands  Missionary  Society,  first  visited  Bang- 
kok in  1828  with  a  view  to  reaching  China,  and  on  his 
invitation  the  American  Board  and  American  Baptists 
began  work.  The  Rev.  Jesse  Carswell,  of  the  former, 
exercised  much  influence  as  tutor  to  the  young  king, 
after  whose  accession  in  1851  missionaries  were  treated 
with  kindness  and  respect.  The  only  Protestant  agency 
now  in  Siam  is  the  mission  of  the  American  Presbyterian 
Church.  Its  first  convert  was  baptized  after  twelve  years' 
labour  in  1859,  and  the  communicants  now  number  2496. 
^  Bee  map  of  Oceania. 


Missionaries  sta  i  :   i    '     i  ■ .  i 
Central  .Siam. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  139 

The  Laos  work  in  particular  gives  great  promise.  The  early 
converts  passed  through  a  time  of  persecution  from  a  local 
Laos  king.  Some  of  them  witnessed  a  noble  confession, 
refusing  to  recant,  and  as  they  were  about  to  be  clubbed 
to  death  praying  the  old  prayer,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my 
spirit."  The  attitude  of  the  present  enlightened  king  and 
high  oflficials  is  sympathetic  and  the  outlook  hopeful. 
"  The  old  Buddhistic  indifference  is  breaking  up,  and  the 
hearts  of  the  people  are  preparing  to  receive  the  truth." 


Northern  Buddhism 

1,  The  Chinese  Empire 

If  extent  of  area  and  greatness  of  numbers  were  alone 
to  decide  the  importance  of  a  mission  field,  the  chief  place 
must  undoubtedly  be  given  to  the  Chinese  Empire,  which 
exceeds  in  size  and  population  the  whole  of  Europe. 
383,000,000  live  in  those  eighteen  densely  peopled  pro- 
vinces, occupying  a  tract  whose  mighty  rivers  contribute 
to  make  it  the  garden  of  Asia.  The  population  of  the 
dependencies  bring  up  the  grand  total  to  400,000,000. 
Every  month  1,000,000  subjects  of  the  Emperor  of  China 
pass  into  the  Beyond !  The  antiquity  of  the  Empire  like- 
wise adds  importance  to  the  field.  Long  prior  to  the 
Aryan  invasion  of  India,  the  Mongols,  pressed  by  Turkish 
hordes,  had  entered  China  from  Turkestan  ;  hundreds  of 
years  before  Abraham  left  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  the  first  of 
twenty-five  successive  dynasties  was  founded ;  about  the 
time  of  Alexander  the  Great's  Eastern  conquests,  the  Em- 
peror Chin  (who  is  supposed  to  have  given  the  present 
name  to  the  land)  emjjloyed  1,000,000  men  for  ten  years 
in  building  the  Great  Wall,  still  the  symbol  of  Chinese 
exclusiveness.  The  present  foreign  dynasty,  founded  by 
the  Manchu  Tartars  in  1G44,  imposed  a  badge  of  servitude 


140 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


on  the  conquered  in  the  queue,  or  pigtail,  now,  however, 
accepted  by  most  as  a  national  distinction,  just  as  the 
foolish  attempt  to  imitate  a  delicate-footed  Empress  con- 
demns the  women  of  China  to  "  totter  on  their  tiptoes  "  as 
the  victims  of  the  tyranny  of  a  perverted  taste.  With  their 
hoary  past,  and  with  few  op})ortunities  of  moderating  their 
self-conceit  by  comparison  with  others,  it  is  little  wonder 

the     Chinese     have 

'  deserved  the  repu- 
tation of  being  the 
proudest  nation  of 
the  world.  Dr. 
Wells  Williams,  the 
author  of  The 
Middle  Kingdom, 
adds  three  other 
characteristics.  The 
Chinese  are,  he  says, 
beyond  all  question, 
the  ablest  of  all  non- 
Christian  commu- 
nities, and  the  most 
unscrupulous  of  all  people,  and  their  minds  are  better 
trained  than  those  of  any  other  non-Christian  nation.^ 

As  already  indicated,  all  the  people  of  China  cannot  be 
classed  under  Buddhism.  At  Pekin  is  the  Temple  of 
Heaven,  "  the  scene  of  the  most  ancient  ritual  now  ob- 
served on  the  face  of  the  earth,"  and  a  relic  of  a  purer 
faith,  which,  says  Dr.  Martin  (in  A  Cycle  of  Cathay),  has 
behind  it  a  record  of  forty  centuries.  The  Emperor,  who 
is  called  the  "Son  of  Heaven,"  is  sole  priest  of  this 
temple.     Every  year,  as  representing  his  people,  he  offers 


li-MPLi.    ATT\CHED    TO    THE    ALTAR    OF    HeAVEN 

Pekin. 
From  A   Cycle  of  Cathay,  by  W.   A.   P.   Martin 
D.D.,     LL.D.     (Revell). 


■*  See  also  John  Chinaman  :  His  Ways  and  Notions,  by  the  late  Rev. 
George  Cockburn,  M.A.,  the  lirst  Church  of  Scotland  Missionary  to 
China. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


141 


worship  to  8hang-ti,  who,  according  to  Professor  Legge 
of  Oxford,  represents  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,  and  whose  cult  points  to  primitive  monotheism. 

About  the  sixth  century  B.C.  flourished  three  great 
men,  Kung-fu-tse,  Lao-tse,  and  Buddha,  who  have  exerted 
a  mighty  influence  on  China.  The  first,  better  known 
under  his  romanised  name  of  Confucum,  is  China's  most 
venerated  sage.  He  did  not  aim 
at  founding  a  religion,  nor  has  he 
been  deified  by  the  people.  He 
did  not  even  claim  originality. 
"I  am  not  an  author,  but  an 
editor,"  he  said  of  himself.  He 
was  a  social  and  political  reformer 
who  "selected  from  the  past  and 
present  whatever  he  deemed 
worthy  of  j^reservation."  He 
was  not,  however  (as  often  stated), 
an  agnostic,  for  he  acknowledged 
the  Supreme  Power  under  the 
name  of  "  Heaven,"  and  he  en- 
couraged ancestor  worship ;  but 
his  immediate  concern  was  rather, 
as  Principal  Grant  says,  "to  teach 
the  way  of  the  ancients,  and  to 
secure  due  reverence  and  submis- 
sion to  the  Emperor  and  ^landarins."  "  Confucius  has  left 
an  aching  void  in  the  religious  heart  of  China  which  some- 
thing must  fill."  1  Li  Hung  Chang,  the  Chinese  statesman, 
admits  that  the  soul  is  "  an  unknowable  mystery,  of  which 
our  great  Confucius  had  only  a  i)artial  knowledge." 

Lao-tse,  the  royal  librarian,  who  founded  Taoism,  or  the 
doctrine  of  the  Tao  or  the  "Way,"  was  an  older  contem- 
porary of   Confucius,  and,  like  him,  had  political  rather 
^  Archdeacou  Moule,  New  China  and  Old. 


Confucius. 
From    Journeyings     in    North 
China,       by 
Williamson. 


Rev. 


Alex. 


142 


MISSIOXARY  EXPANSION 


than  religious  aims.  The  seeds  of  Taoism  are  found  in 
Tao-te-king,  a  book  which  is  ascribed  to  Lao-tse  and 
contains  "  a  collection  of  detached  thoughts  on  the  world, 
human  society,  and  self-government."  From  hints  in  that 
book,  the  followers  of  Lao-tse  "  deduced  the  twin  doctrines 
of  transmutation  of  metals  and  the  elixir  of  life,  thus 
originating  the  practice  of  alchemy  many  centuries  before 
it  found  its  way  into  Europe." 
The  Taoist  clergy  have  a  mono- 
poly of  exorcism  and  witchcraft, 
and  in  their  supposed  communi- 
cations with  the  spirit  world 
they  make  use  of  a  magic  pen, 
not  unlike  the  planchette  of 
modern  spiritualism. 

For  centuries  fierce  conflicts 
were  waged  between  the  fol- 
lowers of  Confucius  and  Lao- 
tse,  and  a  third  rival  appeared 
when  Buddhism  was  introduced. 
At  length  they  arrived,  says  Dr. 
Martin,  "at  a  modus  vivendi 
by  dividing  among  themselves 
the  dominion  of  the  three 
worlds,  heaven  being 'assigned  to  Buddha,  hell  to  Taoism, 
and  this  world  to  Confucius."  "In  ordinary  their  lives 
are  regulated  by  Confucian  forms,  in  sickness  they  call  in 
Taoist  i^riests  to  exorcise  evil  spirits,  and  at  funerals  they 
have  Buddhist  priests  to  say  masses  for  the  repose  of  the 
soul." 

The  real  religion  of  the  Chinese,  however,  is  ancestor 
worship.  Dr.  G.  L.  Mackay  thus  describes  it  in  From 
Far  Formosa : — 

Their  doctrine  thus  is  that  each  man  has  three  souls.  At  death 
the  one  soul  goes  into  the  unseen  world  of  spirits,  the  second  goes 


Raising  Money  for  a 

Taoist  Temple. 
From  A  Cycle  of  Cathay. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


143 


down  into  the  grave,  and  the  third  liovers  about  the  old  homestead. 
For  the  first,  the  priest  is  responsible.  The  second  and  third  claim 
the  services  of  living  relatives,  the  grave  being  tended  by  the  one, 
Avhile  the  other  is  invited  to  take  up  its  abode  in  a  tablet  of  wood  ; 
and  from  that  hour  the  ancestral  tablet  becomes  the  most  sacred 
thing  in  the  possession  of  the  family.  It  is  simply  a  narrow  piece 
of  wood,  about  a  foot     ^^^^^     ,  ^^^^^^     ^ 

long,  two  or  three  W^flfli  '^'ITH  ^  EV  /  iJI 
inches  wide,  and  half  ^3^^'  '  W^T^  'U  it  -  .^^  ^  *« 
an  inch  thick,  set  in  a 
low  pedestal,  and  on 
one  side  are  inscribed 
the  ancestral  names. 
The  eldest  son  has 
charge  of  the  tablet 
and  its  worship.  .  .  . 
The  dead  are  dependent 
on  their  living  rela- 
tives. .  .  .  Food  must 
therefore  be  offered 
before  the  tablet,  .  .  .  paper  clothing  must  be  burned  to  hide  its 
nakedness,  and  paper  money  to  give  it  independence  in  the  world 
of  shades. 


Ancestor  Worship. 

From  the  Centenary  Volume  of  the  Baptist 

Missionary  Society. 


So  long  as  incense  smokes  on  the  ancestral  altar,  so  long 
will  Christianity  find  in  ancestor  worship  one  of  its  hardest 
obstacles,  and  all  the  more  so  that  its  worship  is  founded 
on  the  most  sacred  of  human  relationships  and  accompanied 
by  the  dread  of  the  wrath  of  neglected  spirits. 

Another  barrier  raised  by  superstition  is  Fimg-Shui, 
the  imagined  influence  (indescribable,  yet  gigantic  and 
tyrannical  in  its  effects  upon  the  ignorant)  of  disembodied 
spirits  upon  the  living.  The  raising  of  the  cry  of  Fung- 
Shui — which  means  "wind  and  water,"  the  elements  that 
most  frequently  form  the  vehicle  of  good  or  evil  luck — 
will  "inflame  the  deadliest  superstitions  of  the  Chinese," 
and  it  has  often  been  raised  by  the  literati  to  destroy 
mission  work. 

The   Chinese   Empire    contains   about    20,000,000    of 


144 


MISSIOXARY  EXPAXSIOX 


Mohammedans,    chiefly    in     the    provinces    of    Kansuh, 
Shensi,  and  Yunnan. 

Christianity  was  early  introduced  to  China  by  the 
Kestorian  Church.  At  8i-gnan-fu,  the  old  capital,  a  stone 
tablet  was  found  in  1625,  and 
made  known  to  the  world  by 
the  Koman  Catholic  mission- 
aries. It  was  rediscovered  of 
late  years,  and  Alexander 
Wylie,  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  trans- 
lated the  Chinese  inscription, 
which  gives  a  summary  of  the 
Xestorian  teaching  and  shows 
that  by  625  a.d.  Christianity 
had  made  great  progress  in 
China,  some  of  the  emperors 
being  converts  to  the  faith. 
The  persecutions  of  the  Ming 
dynasty  (1360-1628  a.d.)  seem 
to  have  destroyed  Nestorian 
Christianity.  The  Church  of 
Rome  began  work  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  and  Kublai 
Khan,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
the  emperors,  even  asked  the  Pope  for  a  hundred  Christians 
to  argue  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  promised  that  if 
they  would  prove  this,  he  and  all  under  him  would  become 
Christians  and  the  Church's  liegemen.  The  request  was 
not  complied  with,  and  we  can  only  wonder  what  might 
have  happened  if  Kublai  Khan  had  been  led  to  Christ. 
Francis  Xavier  was  seeking  an  entrance  to  China  when 
he  died  in  1552  on  the  Portuguese  island  of  Sarcian  near 
Canton.  The  Roman  Church  now  claims  over  a  million 
adherents.       The  Greek   Church,  under  the  patronage  of 


The  Si-gnax-fu  Tablet. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


145 


Russia,  has  been  established  at  Pekin  for  two  centuries, 
and  in  later  years  has  shown  considerable  activity. 

Robert  Morrison,  the  pioneer  of  Protestant  missions 
in  China,  landed  in  1807  at  Canton,  whose  wholesale 
merchants  were  the  only  recognised  medium  of  China's  com- 
munication with  the  outside  world.  The  spirit  in  which 
Morrison  went  to  the  attack  of  that  colossal  fortress  of 
heathendom  was  finely  shown  on  his  way  out  in  the  answer 
to  a  New  York  shipping 
agent :  "  And  so,  Mr.  Morri- 
son, you  really  expect  you  will 
make  an  impression  on  the 
idolatry  of  the  great  Chinese 
Empire?"  "No,  sir,  I  ex- 
pect God  will,"  was  his  de- 
cided reply.  For  a  time  he 
suffered  many  privations. 
To  disarm  the  prejudices  of 
the  Chinese  he  adopted  the 
fashions  of  the  country,  in- 
cluding dress,  pigtail,  and 
long  nails,  and  lived  as  far 
as  possible  in  obscurity.  Ill- 
health  and  political  com- 
plications drove  him  to  the  neighbouring  town  of 
Macao,  then  a  Portuguese  trading  settlement,  but  now 
part  of  Portuguese  territory.  There  he  had  to  endure 
the  hostility  of  the  Romish  priests  in  addition  to  the 
suspicion  of  the  natives.  The  Directors  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  had  suggested  that  Morrison  should 
prepare  a  translation  of  the  Bible  and  a  dictionary 
which  would  be  helpful  for  succeeding  workers.  What 
a  task  to  attempt  in  a  language  which  has  no  alpha- 
bet but  thousands  ui)on  thousands*  of  signs  or  word- 
pictures  to  represent  the  ideas  or  things  to  be  expressed ! 

JO 


Dr.  Morrison. 
From  a  Painting  by  Chinnery. 


146  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

To  learn  it,  said  Milne  (Morrison's  first  colleague),  was 
*'  work  for  men  with  bodies  of  brass,  lungs  of  steel,  heads 
of  oak,  hands  of  spring-steel,  eyes  of  eagles,  hearts  of 
apostles,  memories  of  angels,  and  lives  of  Methuselah ! " 
Moreover,  for  a  Chinaman  to  teach  the  language  to 
foreigners  was  a  crime  punishable  by  death,  and  subse- 
quently an  edict  was  issued  making  the  publishing  of 
Christian  books  in  China  an  equally  heinous  offence. 
One  of  Morrison's  teachers  always  carried  poison,  so  that 
he  might  by  suicide  avoid  the  penalty  of  the  law  if  dis- 
covered, while  the  teacher  of  a  later  missionary  provided 
himself  with  an  old  shoe,  that  he  might  pass  off  as  a 
cobbler.  In  such  trying  and  depressing  circumstances  did 
the  pioneer  lay  the  foundation  of  that  scholarship  which 
enabled  him  to  issue  a  Chinese  grammar  in  1812,  to 
translate  the  New  Testament  into  the  classical  language 
by  1813,  and  the  whole  Bible  by  1823,^  and  to  prepare 
his  great  dictionary.  This  last  Avas  published  at  a  cost  of 
£15,000  by  the  East  India  Company,  to  which  Morrison 
had  been  appointed  Chinese  translator,  an  office  of  much 
importance  because  it  gave  him  a  recognised  position  in 
China.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milne  reached  Macao  in  1813,  just 
as  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morrison  were  sitting  down  together  to 
commemorate  their  Lord's  dying  love.  Jesuit  intolerance 
forced  the  Milnes  to  leave  in  eight  days,  and  the  Morrisons 
followed  them  to  Canton.  The  distribution  of  the  New 
Testament  occupied  their  thoughts,  and  as  this  was  not 
possible  in  China,  Milne  visited  the  Malayan  Peniiisula 
and  neighbouring  islands,  whither  a  large  Chinese  immigra- 
tion had  set  in.  In  that  region  new  centres  of  work  were 
begun.  Milne  became  the  head  of  an  Anglo- Chinese 
college  at  Malacca,  and  from  the  mission  press  4,000,000 
of  Gospel  pages  were  issued.      Dr.   Bridgman,  the  first 

^  Marshman  at  Serampore  brought  out  an  independent  translation 
in  1822. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  147 

American  missionary  (iV.B.C.F.M.),  joined  Morrison  at 
Canton  in  1830.  Morrison  died  in  1834,  having  laid  a 
good  foundation,  though  seeing  little  direct  result.  "I 
can  cast  in  l)ut  here  and  there  a  handful  of  seed,"  he  had 
himself  said.  His  first  convert,  Tsai-a-ko,  was  baptized 
after  seven  years  of  waiting,  and  at  his  death  there  were 
not  more  than  ten  members  of  the  Church  in  China. 
One  of  those  members,  Liang-a-fa  (baptized  by  Milne), 
proved  a  distinguished  preacher  and,  as  we  shall  see, 
exercised  a  great  influence  in  after  years. 

The  so-called  opium  war  (1840-42)  had  momentous 
issues  for  the  opening  up  of  China.  The  trade  in  opium 
between  China  and  India  began  in  Warren  Hastings'  time 
(1775),  the  British  merchants  following  the  example  set 
by  the  Portuguese.  There  can  be  little  doubt  the  Chinese 
Imperial  authorities  were  earnest  in  their  endeavours  to 
save  the  country  from  the  curse,  and  the  traffic  was  de- 
clared contraband.  But  while  we  would  not  seek  to 
mitigate  the  responsibility,  nay,  the  guilt,  of  British 
subjects  for  all  measures  to  force  the  drug  on  China,  it 
is  not  true  to  say  that  the  war  of  1840  "was  waged  by 
England  for  the  sole  purpose  of  compelling  the  Chinese 
to  keep  an  open  market  for  that  product  of  her  Indian 
poppy  fields."  Nothing,  says  Dr.  Martin,  the  American 
missionary  and  diplomatist,  "could  be  more  erroneous. 
Grievances  had  been  accumulating  such  as  a  self-respect- 
ing people  cannot  endure  for  ever."  The  destruction 
of  the  opium  chests  at  Canton  was  the  occasion  which 
brought  the  crisis  to  a  head,  but  they  were  no  more  the 
cause  of  the  war  than  were  the  tea-chests  of  Boston  the 
cause  of  the  American  War  of  Independence.  The  war 
resulted  in  the  treaty  of  Nankin,  by  which  the  island  of 
Hong-kong  was  ceded  to  Britain  and  the  five  ports  of 
Canton,  Amoy,  Fu-chau,  Ningpo,  and  Shanghai  thrown 
open  to  trade.     No  mention  of  opium  occurs  in  the  treaty, 


148 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


and  the  pity  only  is  that  the  British  did  not  themselves 
magnanimously  insert  a  prohiVjition  clause.  Such  a  clause 
would  have  saved  China,  to  a  large  extent  at  least,  from 
the  terrible  scourge  which  has  wrought  havoc  to  millions, 
and  would  have  prevented  a  dark  stain  upon  the  British 
name.  There  is  no  question  of  the  unmitigated  curse  of 
opium-smoking,  more  insidious,  as  it  is,  than  almost  any 
other  evil  habit,  and  riveting  in  a  few  weeks  or  months 
its  well-nigh  unbreakable  fetters.  Now,  alas  !  it  is  too 
late   to   save  China  from   without,  for   the   home-grown 

opium,  now  legal- 
ised, exceeds  the 
imported  drug  by 
manyfold.  China's 
well-wishers  stand 
aghast  at  the  pro- 
spect of  the  rising 
flood.  No  opium 
smoker  is  knowingly 
received  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church, 
and  one  form  of 
missionary  agency  is  the  Pvefuge  for  Opium  Slaves,  such 
as  that  of  the  Church  ]Missionary  Society  at  Chekiang,  to 
establish  which  an  Indian  civilian  bequeathed  £3000. 

The  treaty  of  Nankin  led  to  an  innnediate  develop- 
ment of  mission  work  by  many  churches  and  societies. 
In  1847  a  striking  personality  arrived  in  the  Rev. 
W.  C.  Burns,  of  the  English  Presbyterian  Church,  "one 
of  the  first  saints  in  the  missionary  calendar,"  and  a 
man  already  honoured  by  successful  evangelistic  work  in 
Britain  and  Canada.  "He  Avent  to  China,"  says  his 
colleague,  Piev.  H.  L.  ISIackenzie  of  Swatow,  "with  the 
exi)ress  intention  of  Ijeing  an  evangelist,  and  when  he 
could  do  so  with  a  good  conscience,  he  left  the  administra- 


C)i'H  M  iSmokkk-.. 

From  the  Centenary  Volume  of  the  Ba^jtist 

Missionary  Society 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


149 


tion  of  the  Sacrament  and  pastoral  work  to  his  fellow- 
missionaries."  In  carrying  out  his  ideas  he  followed  two 
new  departures  in  missionary  work.  He  lived  more  among 
the  Chinese  than  any  previous  worker  had  done,  dressinu- 
as  a  Chinaman  and  eating  Chinese 
food  ;  and  he  took  the  risk  of  itinerat- 
ing widely  beyond  the  stipulated  limits 
of  the  treaty  ports.  Burns's  life,  it 
has  been  said,  was  "more  powerful 
as  an  influence  than  an  agency." 

The  early  convert,  Liang-a-fa,  re- 
turning from  exile  after  the  treaty  of 
Nankin,  resumed  work  in  Canton. 
To  Hung  Siu  Chuen,  a  student, 
entering  the  Examination  Hall,  he 
handed  one  of  his  tracts,  entitled  The 
True  Prmciple  of  the  WorhTa  Salva- 
tion. The  truth  took  a  profound  hold 
upon  the  young  man,  who  began 
to  propagate  it.  Though  never 
baptized,  he  drew  around  him  a  band  of  believers.  Per- 
secuted by  the  authorities,  they  were  driven  to  open 
rebellion  in  1850.  Political  motives  mingled  with 
the  religious,  and  Hung  Siu  Chuen,  the  Taiping-wang, 
or  "  Prince  of  Peace,"  soon  found  himself  at  the  head 
of  a  victorious  army.  He  now  aspired  to  the  throne, 
and  it  seemed  as  if  the  Manchu  dynasty  would  be  over- 
thrown when  he  set  up  his  court  at  Xankin,  a  former 
capital.  Among  his  declared  objects  were  the  destruction 
of  idolatry  and  the  substitution  of  the  Christian  Scriptures 
for  the  writings  of  Confucius.  The  rite  of  baptism  was 
administered  by  the  washing  of  the  bosom  with  a  towel 
dipped  in  water,  in  token  of  cleansing  the  heart,  a  hymn 
was  sung  before  meals,  and  every  seventh  day  his  captains 
preached  long  sermons  to  the  soldiers.     But  extravagant 


Rev.  W.  C.  Burns. 

From  Memoir  by  Dr.  Islay 
Burns. 


150 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


pretensions  were  soon  developed.  Hung  Siu  Chuen  de- 
clared liimself  inspired,  and  claimed  to  be  the  younger 
brother  of  Jesus  Christ,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  Mohammed, 
excesses  began  to  mark  his  successful  career.  The  struggle 
with  the  Imperial  forces  lasted  till  the  recapture  of  Nankin 
in  1864,  followed  by  the  suicide  of  Hung  8iu  Chuen.  It  is 
generally  thought  that  but  for  the  timely  help  of  foreign 
officers,  chief  among  them  the  American  Ward  and 
"Chinese"  Gordon,  the  hero  of  Khartoum,  the  rebellion 
would  have  been  successful. 
jNIuch  seed  was  sown  during  its 
course,  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  alone  printing  and 
distributing  one  million  copies  of 
the  New  Testament. 

The  occasion  of  the  second 
war  with  China  was  the  illegal 
seizure  of  the  Arroiv,  a  boat  flying 
the  British  flag,  though  the  real 
cause  was,  as  before,  the  insulting 
attitude  of  the  Chinese.  It  re- 
sulted in  the  treaty  of  Tientsin 
(1858)  and  the  Convention  of 
Pekin  (1860),  which  granted  religious  toleration  and  liberty 
to  travel  throughout  the  land.  To  the  American  missionary, 
statesman,  and  scholar,  Wells  Williams,  and  his  colleague, 
Dr.  Martin,  much  credit  is  due  for  the  terms  of  this  Magna 
Charta.  The  missionaries  hastened  to  take  advantage  of 
the  new  openings.  In  1861  the  London  Missionary  Society 
sent  Dr.  Edkins,  one  of  the  foremost  of  Chinese  scholars,  to 
begin  work  at  Tientsin,  and  Dr.  Lockhart  to  open  a  medical 
mission  at  Pekin.  The  first  Protestant  mission  in  central 
China  was  commenced  at  Hankow  in  1861  by  Dr.  Griffith 
John,  a  distinguished  missionary  of  the  same  Society  who 
still  does  pioneering  work  in  inland  China. 


Dr.  Griffith  John. 
From  the  L.M.S,  Chronicle. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


151 


In  the  evangelisation  of  the  interior  a  leading  part  has 
been  taken  by  the  China  Inland  Mission,  whose  founder, 
the  Rev.  J.  Hudson  Taylor,  "the  Loyola  of  Protestant 
missions,"  first  sailed  to  China  in  1853.  In  1855-56  he 
worked  with  W.  C.  Burns  in  inland  districts,  and  became 
deeply  impressed  with  the  need  of  a  special  order  of  evan- 
gelists. Failing  health  compelled  him  in  1860  to  seek 
some  years  of  change  in  England.  In  1866  the  China 
Inland  Mission  was  definitely  formed,  and  Mr.  Taylor  led 
forth  the  first  Lammermuir  party  of  seventeen  adults 
and  four  children,  the  workers 
having  no  guaranteed  salary,  but 
trusting  "  in  the  Lord  whom  they 
serve  to  supply  their  needs." 
Since  then  a  great  international 
and  inter-denominational  host  of 
missionaries  have  proved  that  the 
trust  has  not  been  in  vain.  From 
the  first  Chinese  council  of  senior 
missionaries  in  1886  an  appeal 
was  sent  forth  for  one  hundred 
new  workers  to  come  out  in 
1887,  involving  an  expense  of 
to  the  Society's  then  income  of  £22,000.  The  appeal 
was  made  in  faith  and  with  prayer,  and  after  thanks- 
giving for  the  answer  which  they  believed  they  had 
already  received.  More  money  was  got  than  was  asked 
for,  and  the  frontispiece  of  China's  Millions  for  1888 
contained  the  photographs  of  the  hundred  who  had  left 
England  the  previous  year  !  The  China  Inland  Mission 
has  entered  nearly  all  the  18  provinces,  and  it  has  now 
stations  in  13  of  them,  with  6113  communicants.  Its 
foreign  missionaries  in  1897  numbered  720,  with  507  paid 
native  helpers. 

This  widespread  extension    of    mission  work  has   not 


Rev\  J.  Hudson  Taylor. 
Photo  by  Abraham,  Keswick. 

.£10,000    in    addition 


152 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSIOK 


been  gained  without  suffering  to  the  workers  and  converts. 
Religious  persecution  did  not  cease  when  the  treaties 
granted  toleration,  although  its  form  changed.  Every 
form  of  strategy  was  adopted  by  some  of  the  officials 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  work  and  to  prevent  the  mission- 
aries hiring  premises.  Here  and  there  violent  anti- 
foreign  movements  broke  out,  and  in  these  the  mission- 
aries Avere  the  chief 
sufferers  through 
their  more  exposed 
n^MH^^ ^M --^         positions.  The 

BIHBBQHBSIHH    movements        were 
dBBBBBSSIB    Prec^'eded     by      the 

dissemination  of 
placards  and  tracts 
containing  foul  ac- 
cusations against 
the  missionaries  and 
otlier  foreigners, 
such,  for  example, 
as  their  use  of  in- 
fants for  medicine. 
One  of  the  worst 
riots  occurred  at 
Tientsin  in  1870,  when  the  Roman  Catholic  Mission  was  de- 
stroyed and  many  workers  murdered.  Since  then  there  have 
been  in  different  parts  more  than  twenty  hostile  movements 
of  considerable  importance,  the  last  culminating  in  the 
massacre  of  Kucheng  (Fukien  province)  on  lstAugustl895, 
when  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stewart  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 
six  lady  missionaries,  a  nurse,  and  two  children  j^erished 
in  an  attack  by  fanatical  "vegetarians."  At  Kucheng,  as 
elsew^here,  the  massacres  have  been  followed  by  a  spiritual 
awakening,  and  it  is  stated  that  within  eighteen  months 


mmMmmm 

lii 


The  100  C.I.M.  Missionaries  of  1887. 


BUDDHIST  LAIRDS  163 

after  the  fatal  1st  of  August  20,000  inquirers  had  presented 
themselves  to  the  three  missions  of  the  Fuchau  district, 
and  of  these  5000  were  received  into  the  Church. 

In  breaking  down  the  prejudice  of  the  Chinese  against 
the  "  foreign  devils,"  medical  missions  have  done  a  great 
work.  Experience  has  proved  that  "it  is  Mercy  which 
opens  the  way  for  Truth,  and  the  human  life  of  love  that 
renders  credible  the  message  of  the  infinite  love  of  God." 
The  pioneer  of  this  department  in  China  was  Dr.  Peter 
Parker  of  the  American  Board  in  1835.  A  striking  ex- 
ample of  the  sympathy  excited  in  high  quarters  by  medical 
skill  was  given  in  the  erection  of  the  hospital  at  Tientsin, 
which  Li  Hung  Chang,  the  foremost  Chinese  viceroy  and 
statesman,  publicly  opened  in  grateful  acknowledgment  of 
his  wife's  recovery  through  the  treatment  of  Dr.  J.  K. 
Mackenzie  and  Miss  L.  Howard,  M.D. 

Dr.  Nevius,  the  late  able  American  missionary,  gave  a 
list  of  missionary  agencies  in  the  order  in  which  he 
thought  they  had  proved  fruitful.  In  the  forefront  he 
placed  Bible  and  tract  distribution  and  translation  and 
literary  work.  There  are  many  causes  for  this  order  in  the 
special  circumstances  of  China.  The  Chinese  (men)  are 
distinctly  a  literary  people.  They  had  the  art  of  printing 
900  years  before  it  was  introduced  into  Europe.  They 
have  a  profound,  if  not  superstitious  reverence  for  printed 
paper.  A  huge  system  of  competitive  examination  (the 
precursor  of  our  own  Civil  Service  examination)  is  organised 
throughout  the  land,  somewhat  after  the  style  of  the  London 
University.  One  million  students  compete  annually,  and 
the  poorest  student  may,  if  successful  in  the  examinations, 
rise  to  the  highest  office  in  the  empire.  For  the  hundreds 
of  millions  of  China  there  is  but  one  written  language, 
which  is  also  understood  by  the  learned  classes  of  Japan 
and  Korea,  although  the  varying  methods  of  pronuncia- 
tion create    200    diiferent   spoken  languages.       The  im- 


154 


MISSIONARY  FXPAXSION 


Rev.  Alex.  Williamson,  LL.D. 

Fhoto  by  Ralston  and  Sons, 
Glasgow. 


portance  of  this  unique  field  for  the  printed  Gospel  has 
been  realised  by  the  missionaries.  The  difhculties  of  Bible 
translation  and  revision  have  been 
shared  by  a  band  of  able  scholars 
like  Medhurst,  GiitzlafF,  Bridge- 
man,  Goddard,  Stronach,  Scher- 
eschwesky,  Moule,  Griffith  John. 
Piercy,  and  many  others.  The 
Bible  Societies  —  British  and 
Foreign,  Scottish  and  American 
— have  done  a  noble  work  in 
printing  and  distributing  the 
Scriptures.  The  Christian  Litera- 
ture Society  has  done  much  to  dif- 
fuse Christian  and  general  know- 
ledge. It  was  founded  in  1885 
under  the  guidance  of  the  late  Eev.  Dr.  Williamson  of  the 
National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland,  and  seeks  to  take  full 
advantage  of  the  present  unparalleled  opportunities.  The 
disastrous  results  of  the  late  war    ,  , 

wdth     Japan     have     caused     the  .. ., 

leaders  of  China  to  look  more 
sympathetically  upon  Western 
civilisation  and  learning,  and  they 
have  shown  a  striking  readiness 
to  consult  the  missionaries  on  the 
best  means  for  the  future  develop- 
ment of  the  empire. 

The  work  for  the  blind  of 
the  Rev.  W.  H.  Murray  (origin- 
ally of  the  National  Bible  Society 
of  Scotland,  Pekin)  promises 
to  be  not  only  a  great  blessing 

to  the  sightless,  but  also  a  priceless  boon  to  the  "  sighted  " 
Chinese.       He  has  adapted  the  Braille  system  for  teach- 


Rev.  W.  H.  Murray. 
From  Miss  Gordon  Cuniming's 
The  Inventor  of  the  Numeral 
Type  for  China. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


155 


ing  the  blind  to  suit  the  408  distinct  sounds  of 
Mandarin  Cliinese  (the  language  of  300,000).  By  a 
further  development  he  has  arranged  it  for  sight  as 
well  as  touch.  Miss  Gordon  Gumming,  the  traveller  and 
authoress,  who  has  warmly  espoused  Mr.  Murray's  work, 
states  that  "  it  has  been  fully  proved  that  the  most  ignorant 
peasants,  both  blind  and  sighted,  can  by  this  system  learn 
to  read  and  write  fluently  in  periods  ranging  from  one 
to  three  months."  Mr.  Murray's  in- 
vention should  prove  of  incalculable 
value  in  the  teaching  of  native 
Ghristians,  and  a  great  blessing  to 
the  women  of  Ghina,  of  whom  not 
more  than  one  in  10,000  is  said  to 
be  able  to  read. 

The  high  priest  of  Ghinese  Bud- 
dhism is  the  Grand  or  Dalai  Lama 
of  Tibet,  residing  at  Lhasa.  This 
religious  distinction  was  granted  to 
Tibet  in  return  for  political  fealty. 
A  feature  of  Lamaism  is  the 
mechanical  prayer-wheel,  whose 
cylinder  contains  a  roll  of  paper 
bearing  the  mystic  words,  "Cm 
mani  padme  Hum,"  "  Cm !  the  Jewel  in  the  Lotus, 
Hum  ! "  Each  revolution  of  the  wheel — driven  by  hand, 
wind,  or  water, — is  supposed  to  bring  so  much  merit. 
The  people,  says  Dr.  Waddell  in  his  Lamaism,  "have 
fallen  under  the  double  ban  of  menacing  demons  and 
superstitious  priests."  From  no  country  on  the  face  of 
the  earth  would  we  less  expect  spiritual  enlightenment 
than  from  Tibet,  notwithstanding  the  Mahatmas  of 
enthusiastic  theosophists. 

Tibet  is  jealously  guarded  from  Western  influence.    Few 
Europeans  have  entered  Lhasa,  and  no  one  is  knowingly 


Prayer-Wheel. 


156  MISSIONARY  EXPANSlOlf 

allowed  to  do  so.  Missionaries  are  not  suffered  within 
the  land.  During  the  eighteenth  century  the  Roman 
Catholics  seem  to  have  carried  on  a  flourishing  work,  but 
they  were  expelled  in  1760.  During  the  present  century, 
too,  they  got  a  temporary  footing  for  a  few  years.  The 
Moravians  were  the  first  Protestants  to  begin  the  attack 
upon  the  closed  land.  In  1856  their  missionaries,  Heyde 
and  Pagell,  settled  at  Kyelang,  in  the  valley  of  Lahoul,  on 
the  western  (Indian)  frontier.  They  were  joined  by  the 
learned  Jaschke,  who  laid  a  foundation  for  succeeding 
workers  by  his  Tibetan  dictionary  and  Bible  translation. 
Other  stations  were  opened  later  on.  Very  touching  and 
heroic  is  the  story  of  patient  toil  and  painful  witness 
of  these  Moravian  pioneers  in  their  isolated  stations 
among  the  Himalayan  snows,  where  they  suffered  many 
hardships  and  had  little  cheer  in  the  form  of  direct 
results.  But  they  were  preparing  the  way  for  the 
present  extended  attack  on  Tibet  from  many  quarters. 
In  Baltistan,  west  of  Leh,  the  Scandinavian  Mission 
Alliance  is  working  ;  at  Almora,  on  the  western  frontier 
of  Nepal,  is  the  London  Missionary  Society's  station ;  on 
the  Sikkim  frontier,  between  Nepal  and  Bhutan  (in  both  of 
which  countries,  too,  Lamaism  more  or  less  prevails),  are 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  Scandinavians,  the  Inter- 
national Missionary  Alliance  (U.S.A.),  and  the  Tibetan 
Pioneer  Mission  of  Miss  Annie  R.  Taylor,  who  made  a 
memorable  journey  to  the  confines  of  Lhasa.  From 
Chinese  territory  the  Tibetan  Mission  Band  works  under 
Mr.  Cecil  Polhill  Turner,  who,  with  his  wife,  suffered  in  a 
riot  at  Singpdn  in  1893.  The  Tibetan  Prayer  Union 
unites  the  interest  of  these  various  bodies  who  are  sur- 
rounding this  last  stronghold  of  undiluted  heathenism. 
"  God  may  be  preparing  another  Jericho,"  writes  Mr. 
Shaw,  late  of  Leh,  "  but  we  must  be  prepared  for  much 
toil  before  the  power  of  the  Dalai  Lama  is  broken." 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


157 


To  the  Buddhist  Buriats,  a  Mongol  trihe  in  Siberia,  the 
London  Missionary  Society  early  sent  a  mission,  but  the  de- 
termined and  disheartening  opjtosition  which  Russia  offers 
to  all  efforts  not  under  the  Greek  Church  led  to  its  close  in 
1841.  The  Mongolian  Mission  was  reopened  in  1871  by 
James  Gilmour,  whose  heroic  life  and  lonely  wanderings 
for  twenty  years  among  the  coarse  and  almost  repulsive 
nomad  tribes  have  touched  the  heart 
of  Christendom.  He  was  privileged 
to  see  but  one  or  two  converts,  but 
his  argument  with  gainsayers  ever 
was — the  Mongols  have  as  much 
right  to  a  fair  offer  of  Christianity 
as  any  other  race.  Duty^  and  not 
results  weighed  with  CTilmour. 

In  Manchuria,  the  Canada  of 
the  Empire,  the  Irish  Presbyterian 
Church  (1869)  and  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  (1872)  have 
laboured.  Dr.  John  Ross  was  the 
pioneer  of  the  latter,  and  from  New- 
chwang  and  Moukden  he,  with  his 
Irish  and  Scottish  colleagues,  has 
carried  on  a  widespread  work.  At  the 
present  time  there  is  a  remarkable 
awakening,  and  hundreds  are  being 
baptized.  A  young  preacher  was  lately  put  to  death  for 
Jesus' sake.  Of  this  Dr.  Ross  whites  (1897):  "Instead 
of  terrifying  the  people,  the  martyrdom  of  this  young  man 
has  been  the  cause  of  rousing  a  spirit  of  inquiry  more 
general  and  intense  than  ever  in  the  neighbourhood. 
Rarely  a  day  i)asses  without  ten  or  twelve  ai)i)licants  for 
baptism  appearing  for  the  registering  of  their  names  in  the 
chapel." 

"  John     Chinaman "    is    ubiquitous.       In     the     oNIalay 


~i   M  \N(HU  Pastor 
(U.P.  Church). 
Fhotn  by  James  Paton, 
Greenock. 


158 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


Peninsula  and  neighbouring  islands,  in  Australia  and  the 
South  Seas,  in  America  and  London,  the  yellow  race  is 
found, — in  such  numbers  in  the  United  States  and 
Australia  that  enactments  for  their  exclusion  are  thought 
necessary.  Among  these  exiled  Chinamen  missionaries 
labour.  Some  of  the  Chinese  churches  in  America  are 
flourishing,  and  their  members  conduct  mission  work  in 
their  native  land.  In  London  the 
venerable  George  Piercy,  after  thirty 
years  of  labour  in  China,  seeks 
with  other  workers  the  salvation  of 
the  children  of  Sinim  settled  in  the 
metropolis. 

The  present  outlook  of  mis- 
'H  sionary  enterprise  in  the  Chinese 
Empire  is  assuredly  hopeful.  The 
native  church  is  being  organised  on 
the  lines  of  self-support  ;  a  large 
proportion  of  the  native  Chris- 
tians are  eager  to  tell  the  good 
news  to  their  neighbours ;  and  a 
review  of  the  field  gives  the  impression  that  the  native 
workers,  voluntary  and  paid,  form,  on  the  whole,  a  band 
of  earnest,  reliable,  and  capable  men  and  women.  The 
numerical  results  are,  moreover,  most  encouraging,  espe- 
cially Avhen  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  only  fifty-five 
years  since  China  was  opened  to  the  Gospel.  The  follow- 
ing summary  of  statistics,  which  does  not  include  Tibet, 
is  taken  from  the  China  Mission  Handhook^  published  at 
Shanghai  in  1896:— 

Number  OF  Missionary  Societies. — 44  (U.S.A.,  20  ;  British,  17  ; 

Canadian,  2  ;  Continental,  5),  occupying  152  central  stations 

and  1054  out-stations. 
Pastoral   and    Evangelistic    Work,  —  Ordained    agents,    641 

(foreign,    389  ;    native,    252)  ;   unordained  (paid),  4442   (for. 


Rev.  George  Piercy. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  159 

M.,  2S4  ;  F.,  641;  native  M.,  2994;  F.,  513);  organised 
churches,  706  (of  which  137  wholly,  and  490  partially  self- 
aupporting)  ;  communicants  in  1893,  55,093  ;  baptized  in  1893 
10,268  (adults,  6879  ;  children,  3389)  ;  native  Christian  con- 
tributions in  1893,  £6211. 

Medical  Work.— Certificated  M.,  143  (for.  96  ;  native,  47) ;  F.  (for. 
47  ;  native,  11) ;  medical  students,  179  (M.  151  ;  F.  28) ;  hos- 
pitals, 71,  with  18,898  in-patients  ;  dispensaries.  111,  with 
223,162  district  patients  ;  opium  refuges,  36  ;  smokers  ad- 
mitted in  1893,  1088  ;  fees  from  natives  in  1893,  £1498. 

Educational  Work.— Schools,  primary,  972,  with  16,079  scholars  • 
secondary,  114,  with  3635  scholars ;  colleges  or  training 
schools,  46,  with  1640  scholars  ;  total  teachers,  1536. 


2.  Korea 

Korea  (with  about  13,000,000  inhabitants)— called  the 
Hermit  Nation,  because  of  its  long  and  determined  isola- 
tion— promises  to  be  one  of  the  most  successful  of  mission- 
fields,  though  one  of  the  last  to  open  its  doors.  The  ruler 
of  the  peninsula  was  nominally  a  vassal  of  China,  but 
Japan  disputed  the  claim,  and  hence  arose  the  late  war  so 
disastrous  to  Chinese  pretensions.  The  Eev.  John  Ross 
of  Manchuria  has  the  honour  of  being  the  pioneer  Protest- 
ant missionary.  Visits  in  1873  and  1874  to  the  frontier 
"Korean  Gate"  laid  the  needs  of  the  country  heavily 
upon  his  heart.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Luke  was  translated 
by  him  and  his  colleague,  Mr.  M'Intyre.  The  first 
convert,  a  Korean  employed  to  set  up  the  type,  was 
sent  into  Korea  with  a  hundred  copies,  and  returned  in 
six  months  with  the  glad  tidings  that  some  men  wished 
to  confess  Christ.  When  Mr.  Ross  and  Mr.  Webster 
were  able  to  undertake  the  perilous  journey,  they  found 
a  hundred  ready  for  baptism.  These  had  to  undergo 
severe  persecution.  Dr.  Allen,  of  the  American  Presby- 
terian Mission,  settled  at  Seoul  in  1884,  at  the  request 
of  Ritjutei,  a  Korean  of  rank  who  had  been    converted 


160  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

in  Japan.  Dr.  Allen's  mission  of  mercy  to  the  bodies 
of  the  Koreans  has  led  to  a  great  development  of  the 
agencies  seeking  the  salvation  of  their  souls.  The 
Church  of  England  subsequently  established  a  bishopric, 
and  the  Methodists,  Presbyterians  of  Victoria,  and  a 
Canadian  Society  have  also  joined  forces.  Mrs.  Isabella 
Bird  Bishop,  the  authoress  and  traveller, — a  convert  to 
missions  through  seeing  the  need  of  the  heathen  and  the 
work  accomplished  by  missionaries  in  oriental  countries — 
lately  spent  two  years  in  Korea,  and  is  trying  to  rouse  the 
,—?s,->K  Christian  Church  to  a  due  sense 

of  the  importance  of  the  field. 
The  work  in  the  Pyong  Yang 
district,  Mrs.  Bishop  says,  "  is  the 
most  imj^ressive  mission  work  I 
have  seen  in  any  part  of  ths 
world."     And,  she  adds  : — 

It   shows   that   the  Spirit  of  God 
.  ,  still  moves  on  the  earth,  and  that  the 

{      —        old  truths  of  sin,  judgment  to  come, 

Mrs.  Bishop.  ^f  the  Divine  justice  and  love,  of  the 

Atonement,  and  of  the  necessity  of  holiness,  have  the  same  power 
as  in  the  apostolic  days  to  transform  the  lives  of  men.  "What  I 
saw  and  heard  there  greatly  strengthened  my  own  faith.  ...  A 
door  is  opened  wide,  how  wide  only  those  can  know  who  are  on 
the  spot.  Yery  many  are  prepared  to  renounce  devil  worship, 
and  to  worship  the  true  God,  if  only  they  are  taught  how  ;  and 
large  numbers  more  who  have  heard  and  received  the  Gospel  are 
earnestly  craving  to  be  instructed  in  its  rides  of  holy  living. 

3.  Japan 

So  long  as  the  sun  shall  warm  the  earth  let  no  Christian 
he  so  hold  as  to  come  to  JajMn ;  and  let  all  know  that  the 
King  of  Spain  himself,  or  the  Christian's  God  [supposed  to 
refer  to  the  Pope],  or  the  great  God  of  all,  if  he  violate  thi& 
command,  shall  pay  for  it  with  his  head. 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  161 

That  was  the  edict  of  the  seventeenth  century  which 
marked  the  close  of  the  first  attempt  to  Christianise  Jajian. 
The  attempt  was  begun  in  1549  by  Francis  Xavier,  who 
had  his  attention  drawn  to  the  land  by  a  Japanese  exile 
in  Southern  India.  In  thirty  years  the  Jesuit  and  other 
Orders  claimed  100,000  converts,  and  before  the  persecution 
liad  put  an  end  to  their  work  the  number  of  Christians  is 
said  to  have  reached  2,000,000.  When  the  pagan  reaction 
— largely  brought  about  by  political  causes — set  in,  the 
Christians  suffered  unspeakable  torments.  Few  of  them 
apostatised.  In  the  final  insurrection  of  1637  as  many  as 
37,000  were  massacred,  and  numbers  were  hurled  from  the 
"  Tarpeian  Rock  "  of  Tappenburg  in  Nagasaki  harbour. 

For  more  than  200  years  Japan  rigidly  shut  her  doors 
to  foreign  contact.  Only  a  few  Dutch  traders  were 
allowed  to  remain  on  the  isle  of  Deshima,  under  strict 
surveillance  and  harassing  rules.  The  Mikado,  or  Emperor, 
at  the  old  capital  of  Kyoto  was  nominal  ruler,  but  the 
real  power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Shogun,  or  military 
head,  at  Yedo,  and  each  of  the  Daimios,  or  feudal  lords, 
exercised  power  in  his  own  domain.  The  ancient  religion 
of  the  land  was  Shintoism,  "  a  compound  of  the  worship 
of  nature  and  of  deified  human  beings."  "Shinto"  is  the 
Chinese  equivalent  of  the  Japanese  Kami-no-michi  (theos 
logos),  "the  way  of  the  gods."  Its  characteristic  features 
are  the  absence  of  an  ethical  or  doctrinal  code,  and  the 
implicit  obedience  to  the  Mikado  as  the  descendant  and 
representative  of  the  gods.  Shintoism  has  no  idols  or 
images.  Its  worship  "  consists  merely  in  washing  the  face 
in  a  font,  striking  a  bell,  throwing  a  few  cash  into  the 
money  box,  and  praying  silently  for  a  few  seconds."  Its 
symbols  are  the  mirror  and  the  gohei,  or  strips  of  notched 
white  paper.  In  the  mirror  the  worshippers  are  supposed 
to  see  their  own  hearts  and  then  to  compare  them  with 
the  gohei  hanging  alongside.     Shintoism,  says  Professor 

II 


162 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


Dixon,  "  is  rather  an  engine  of  government  than  a  religion. 
It  keeps  its  hold  on  the  masses  chiefly  through  its  being 
interwoven  with    reverence    for   ancestors    and    patriotic 

ideas."  On  the  popular 
mind  the  later  Bud- 
dhism, with  its  ela- 
borate ritual,  has  a 
firmer  hold  than  the 
bald  cult  of  Shintoism, 
though  no  clear  line 
(•an  be  drawn  between 
them,  as  the  temples 
A  ,>iiiMu  TiMiLi:.  of  both  are  frequented 

without  much  discrimination.  The  struggle  between  the 
two  systems  was  brought  to  an  end  two  centuries  ago  by 
the  Shinto  gods  and  heroes  being  regarded  as  manifesta- 
tions of  Buddha. 

The  sudden  transformation  of  this  mediaeval  feudalism 
and  Asiatic  despotism  into  an  advanced  representative 
government  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  history.  The  limited 
contact  with  the  handful  of  Dutch  contributed  to  the 
change.  In  them,  too,  Commodore  Oliver  Hazard  Perry 
found  useful  interpreters  when  he  sailed  into  Yedo 
harbour  on  1st  July  1853,  with  his  four  "volcanoes," 
which  struck  terror  into  the  hearts  of  rulers  and  ruled. 
His  object  was  to  induce  the  Japanese  to  forgo  their 
policy  of  isolation.  Lord  Elgin,  after  successfully  com- 
pleting the  treaty  of  Tientsin,  made  a  further  advance 
within  the  closed  doors,  and  the  treaty  of  Yedo  (1858) 
laid  the  basis  of  our  relations  with  Japan.  Increasing 
contact  with  the  outside  world  wrought  speedy  and  amaz- 
ing changes — not,  however,  without  fierce  struggles 
between  the  new  and  the  old  parties.  After  a  civil  war 
the  Shogunate  was  abolished  in  1868,  the  Mikado  became 
real  ruler,  the  Daimios  voluntarily  surrendered  their  feudal 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  163 

privileges,  and  European  methods  of  government  were 
adopted.  The  Christian  Sabbath  had  become  the  official  day 
of  rest  in  1874,  and  representative  government  was  estab- 
lished when  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  met  in  1890. 
The  sea,  which  had  hitherto  been  an  isolating  barrier, 
became  a  pathway  of  commerce.  The  results  of  Western 
methods  were  clearly  shown  in  the  war  with  China.  Japan 
delights  to  be  called  the  Britain  of  Asia ;  and  in  position, 
area,  and  population  it  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  our 
island  home. 

Among  the  factors  which  have  contributed  to  this  marvel- 
lous revolution,  Christian  missions  have  been  perhaps  the 
chief.  America  naturally  led  the  way.  The  Rev.  John 
Liggins  and  C.  M.  (afterwards  Bishop)  Williams,  of  the  Pro- 
testant Episcopal  Church,  were  the  first  to  arrive  in  1859, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  year  they  were  followed  by  Dr.  J. 
C.  Hepburn  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  by  Verbeck, 
Brown,  and  Simmons  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church. 
The  next  year  the  Baptists  sent  the  Rev.  J.  Goble  and  the 
Japanese  Santaro,  the  former  a  marine  and  the  latter  a 
waif  of  Perry's  squadron.  Before  the  end  of  the  first 
decade  the  Church  Missionary  Society  and  the  American 
Board  had  entered  the  field.  The  first  convert  was 
baptized  in  1866,  and  in  1872  the  first  church  was 
organised  by  Ballagh  (Dutch  Reformed)  under  the  simple 
name  of  "The  Church  of  Christ." 

The  early  work  was  carried  on  in  the  face  of  opposition 
and  suspicion,  largely  a  legacy  of  Jesuit  traditions.  The 
men  employed  to  teach  the  missionaries  were  frequently 
Government  spies.  As  late  as  1868  the  drastic  edict  at 
the  head  of  this  section  was  republished  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  was  not  withdrawn 
till  toleration  was  proclaimed  in  1873.  In  those  circum- 
stances little  could  be  done  by  way  of  direct  preaching. 
The    missionaries    gave    themselves    to   the    preparation 


164 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


c% 


of  literature,  and  they  took  advantage  of  such  openings  as 
they  got  in  the  Government  schools.  As  Dr.  Ferris  says  : 
"  God  led  our  missionaries  into  the  schools,  and  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  entered  Japan  through  the  schools." 
Among  those  first  workers  were  distinguished  educationists, 
like  Dr.  Verbeck,  who,  after  the  revolution  of  1868,  became 
the  head  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokyo  and  the 
adviser  of  the  "Makers  of  New  Japan."  To  that  early 
educational  w^ork  is,  no  doubt, 
partly  due  the  significant  fact 
that  the  converts  in  Japan  have 
been  largely  young  men  from  the 
higher  ranks  of  society. 

After  ten  years  of  absence 
Joseph  Hardy  Neesiraa  returned 
^')  his  native  country  in  1874  to 
MLind  the  celebrated  Doshisha, 
"One-Purj^ose  Comijany,"  or 
Christian  University.  His  is  a 
romantic  story.  As  a  youth  his 
inquiring  mind  was  stirred  by 
reading  in  a  Chinese  book  the 
first  words  of  Genesis.  "This 
is  the  God  for  whom  I  am  look- 
he  thought,  and  he  secretly  determined  to  find 
out  about  Him.  To  leave  Japan  was  a  capital  ofl"ence, 
yet  he  hid  himself  in  a  Shanghai  produce  boat.  He 
ultimately  worked  his  way  to  America  in  a  vessel 
belonging  to  the  late  Hon.  Alphseus  Hardy,  who  re- 
ceived him  into  his  own  family  and  provided  him  with 
a  college  education.  Having  acted  as  interpreter  to  the 
first  Japanese  embassy  during  its  stay  in  the  United 
States,  he  was  pardoned  for  leaving  his  native  land,  and 
he  went  back  cherishing,  as  he  said,  the  purpose  of 
founding  an  institution  in  which  should  be  taught  "  the 


Neesima  and  his  Wife. 
From  The  Missionary  Herald. 


mg, 


er 


BUDDHIST  LANDS  165 

Christian  principles  of  faith  in  God,  love  of  truth,  and 
benevolence  towards  one's  fellow-men."  Through  the 
liberality  of  the  American  Board  and  local  sympathisers, 
he  was  enabled  to  rear  fine  buildings  which  became  the 
centre  of  evangelistic  and  educational  work.  In  the 
year  1889  there  was  a  remarkable  revival  among  the 
Doshisha  students,  and  172  of  them  professed  faith  in 
Christ.  Neesima  died  in  1890,  beloved  and  lamented.  A 
banner  carried  in  the  funeral  procession  bore  these  sug- 
gestive words  of  his  :  "  Free  education  and  self-governin 
churches  :  if  these  go  together,  the 
country  will  stand  for  all  genera- 
tions." 

When  the  earlier  years  of  pre- 
paration had  passed,  it  looked  as 
if  Japan  were  to  become  at  once 
a  Christian  nation.  The  greatest 
enthusiasm  prevailed  among  the 
Japanese  for  everything  Western. 
New  missionary  societies  poured  in  ^^^  Hepburn. 

their  forces.     A  large  number  of 

able  native  pastors  were  being  trained,  and  congregations 
began  to  develop  an  unlooked-for  power  of  self  support. 
Thousands  of  converts  were  being  received  every  year  at  an 
ever-increasing  rate.  The  Speaker  of  the  first  Parliament 
was  a  Christian,  and  there  were  other  Christian  members. 
All  the  Protestant  missionaries  united  to  arrange  for  the 
translation  of  the  Bible,  and  the  task  was  heartily  entered 
upon  by  foreign  and  native  scholars  under  the  lead  of  the 
venerable  Dr.  Hepburn.  The  New  Testament  was  pub- 
lished in  1880  and  the  whole  Bible  in  1888.  In  1879  Mr. 
Batchelor  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  began  a  work 
among  the  aboriginal  Ainus  of  Yezo,  which,  after  twelve 
years  of  waiting,  began  to  show  hopeful  signs.  The 
Itoman   Catholic  Church,  which  had    found   its  task  of 


166  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

renewing  the  old  work  made  easy  through  lingering 
traditions  and  customs  in  certain  villages,  gained  many 
converts.  So  did  the  Russo-Greek  Church,  which  had 
established  itself  in  1870. 

The  bright  hopes  of  1890  have  not,  however,  been  real- 
ised. Since  then  there  has  been  a  decided  lull.  Fewer 
converts  have  been  won  and  there  has  been  a  revival  of 
Buddhism.  Moreover,  there  has  appeared  in  some  quarters 
a  rationalistic  spirit  within  the  churches.  The  cause  of 
all  this  is  generally  thought  to  be  the  intense  national 
spirit,  if  not  pride,  developed  of  later  years.  In  so  far  as 
this  has  shown  itself  among  the  Christians  in  the  shape 
of  a  legitimate  determination  to  make  the  churches  self- 
supporting  and  self-propagating,  it  is  a  matter  for  grati- 
tude. Some  mission  writers  think  that  foreign  missionaries 
are  now  required  in  Japan  more  as  advisers  than  as  rulers, 
and  that  so  far  as  ordinary  evangelistic  and  educational 
workers  are  concerned,  there  is  little  need  of  outside  help. 
They  urge,  however,  that  some  strong  men  should  still  be 
sent  to  guide  the  young  church  and  to  fill  posts  of  special 
importance  ;  and  they  seem  to  think  that  lady  missionaries 
cannot  be  dispensed  with.  A  great  desire  for  union  has 
shown  itself  among  the  different  bodies.  Although  the 
present  numerical  advance  is  comparatively  small,  there  are 
tokens  of  a  deepened  spiritual  life  in  the  churches.  A 
winnowing  process  has  been  going  on  during  the  season  of 
rationalism  and  excessive  patriotism ;  and  many  regard  the 
present  as  a  time  of  preparation  for  a  greater  ingathering 
than  has  hitherto  been  known. 

The  Island  of  Formosa  and  the  Pescadores  were  Japan's 
war  prizes  from  China.  The  English  Presbyterian  Church 
began  a  mission  in  the  south  of  Formosa  in  1865  under 
Dr.  Maxwell,  and  the  Canadian  Presbyterian  Church 
occupied  the  north  in  1872  through  Dr.  G.  L.  MacKay, 
svhose  successful  work  as  recorded  in  From  Far  Formosa 


BUDDHIST  LANDS 


167 


has  won  him  a  foremost  place  in  the  ranks  of  missionary 
writers.  Since  the  Japanese  occupation  much  interest 
has  been  awakened  in  the  evangelisation  of  Formosa 
among  Japanese  Christians. 


Slaves  on  the  Way  to  the  Coast. 
From  Livingstone's  Last  Journals,  edited  by  Horace  Waller  (Harper  and  Co.). 


CHAPTER   IX 


THE    DARK    CONTINENT 


The  continent  of  Africa  is  exactly  three  times  the  size  of 
Europe,  though  its  population,  variously  estimated  from 
127  to  200  millions,  is  probably  not  more  than  half  as 
large.  It  has  been  called  the  "  pagan  continent,"  ^  because 
the  bulk  of  its  people  belong  to  none  of  the  world's 
"book  religions,"  and  it  contains  six-sevenths  of  all  the 
pagans  on  the  globe.  It  is  also  known  as  the  "  Dark 
Continent," — being  the  last  of  the  world's  divisions  to  be 
opened  to  the  light  of  civilisation.  When  Queen  Victoria 
ascended  the  throne,  our  knowledge  of  Africa  was  confined 
for  the  most  part  to  the  northern  borders,  the  region  of  the 
Cape,  and  a  few  patches  here  and  there  on  the  coast-line. 
For  years  later,  indeed,  geographers  represented  the 
interior  by  a  few  conjectural  situations  and  the  suj^posed 
Mountains  of  the  Moon.  The  great  river  and  lake  systems. 
^  Northern  or  Muliauiiuedun  Africa  will  l»e  treati'il  uiKUtr  Islam. 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  169 

now  the  glory  of  physical  Africa,  were  unknown.  Bruce, 
indeed,  had  partially  explored  the  Nile  during  last  century, 
and  Mungo  Park  had  perished  on  the  Niger  in  1806.  But 
light  did  not  begin  to  break  on  the  Dark  Continent  till  the 
missionaries  Krapf  and  Rebman  (1845-52)  astonished  the 
world  with  their  discoveries  of  the  snow-capped  mountain, 
Kilimanjaro,  four  degrees  from  the  Equator,  and  with  the 
rumours  of  a  great  inland  sea.  Livingstone,  the  prince  of 
explorers,  and  his  followers.  Burton,  Speke,  Grant,  Baker, 
Stanley,  Cameron,  Thomson,  and  many  more,  have  con- 
tributed to  the  map  of  Africa  those  details  which  bring  it 
well-nigh  into  line  with  the  other  continents. 

But  the  moral  and  social  condition  of  its  people  has, 
above  all,  won  for  Africa  the  epithet  "dark."  "One  uni- 
versal den  of  desolation,  misery,  and  crime  "  is  a  true  descrip- 
tion of  the  state  of  much  of  its  surface.  Contact  with  the 
evils  of  civilised  Europe  has  often  but  added  to  its  sad 
plight.  Lord  Palmerston  used  these  strong  words  of  the 
slave  trade  i^ — "  The  crimes  committed  in  regard  to  African 
slavery  and  the  slave  trade  were  greater  in  amount  than 
all  the  crimes  of  the  world  to  the  present  time."  All  the 
more  honour  to  the  memory  of  those  great  men  who,  amidst 
bitter  opposition,  led  the  successful  crusade  against  the 
accursed  traffic  in  human  flesh  and  blood,  and  were  also 
the  leaders  in  the  modern  missionary  movement.  As  far 
as  Great  Britain  is  concerned,  the  progress  of  the  crusade  is 
indicated  by  three  landmarks  : — the  memorable  decision  of 
Lord  Mansfield  in  1772  that  "as  soon  as  any  slave  sets  his 
foot  on  English  ground  he  becomes  free  " ;  the  Act  of  1 807 
abolishing  the  slave  trade;  and  the  Act  of  1834,  which 
put  an  end  to  slave -holding  in  the  British  dominions. 
Since  then  strenuous  efforts  have  been  made  to  crush  the 
African  coast  and  inland  traffic,  conducted  chiefly  by  the 
Arab  traders,  those  "  whited  sepulchres "  who,  as  A.  M. 
1  For  the  early  history  of  the  slave  trade  see  p.  38. 


170  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

Mackay  expressed  it,  led  bands  of  helpless  cai>tives  from 
the  interior  to  the  coast  along  "hell's  highway,"  leaving 
behind  a  track  of  bleached  bones  to  tell  the  ghastly  story 
of  strife  and  sin.  No  wonder  the  cry  of  those  simple 
sufferers  gave  a  peculiar  urgency  to  Africa's  call  to  the 
Church  of  Christ. 

The  bondage  of  the  African  has  not  been  confined  to  the 
use  of  the  slave-stick.  Africa  has  been  the  abode  of  many 
other  forms  of  cruelty.  Tribe  has  waged  cruel  war  upon 
tribe ;  the  most  abominable  practices  have  prevailed ;  human 
sacrifices,  murder,  rapine,  and  uncleanness  have  abounded. 
A  lurid  light  was  cast  on  what  must  have  been  the  state 
of  many  places  by  the  report  of  the  sickening  sights 
which  confronted  the  British  army  at  Benin  in  1897. 
The  Africans  have  been  under  the  tyrannical  and  degrad- 
ing sway  of  the  medicine  man  or  sorcerer  and  the  debasing 
fear  of  demons.  The  prevailing  religion  of  much  of  Africa 
has  been  fetichism^  a  name  which  may  be  popularly  used  to 
describe  the  worship  of  any  object,  animate  or  inanimate, 
arbitrarily  supposed  to  embody  some  supernatural  power. 
The  witch  doctor  is  looked  upon  as  the  skilled  man  who 
can  alone  regulate  this  power  for  weal  or  woe  in  bodily 
sickness  or  temporal  affairs. 

The  language  map  shows  the  clearly  defined  racial  dis- 
tribution of  the  continent.  The  Hamitic  and  Semitic 
peoples  mainly  occupy  the  Mohammedan  zone,  which  is  not 
dealt  with  in  this  chapter.  The  inhabitants  of  Negro-land 
have  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  much  superior 
Bantus  to  the  south  of  the  Equator,  and  these  again  from 
the  Hottentot  and  Bushmen  of  the  south-west,  who  are  the 
least  advanced  of  the  African  peoples. 

The  origin  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Africa,  and  the 
significance  of  the  labours  of  the  earlier  and  later  workers, 
have  been  suggestively  indicated  by  Dr.  Cust  in  the  dedica- 
tion of  his  Africa  Rediviva. 


Zancuace  Map 


\  AT RIJCA 


Hamjh'c 


Semihc 


Bantu 

/fd//e///o/ Bi/sA/nen  ^^t 
Malay 


172  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

To  the  memory  of  Simon  of  Cyrene,  the  first  African  cross- 
bearer  ;  the  Eunuch  of  Ethiopia,  the  first  African  who  was  baptized  ; 
Apollos  of  Alexandria,  the  first  African  mighty  in  the  Scriptures  ; 
Cyprian  and  Augustine,  the  first  men,  and  Katharina,  Felicitas, 
and  Perpetua,  the  first  women  who  died  for  Christ  in  Africa  ;  Fru- 
mentius,  the  first  translator  of  God's  Word  into  a  language  of 
Africa ;  and  the  great  army  of  martyrs,  evangelists,  and  philanthro- 
pists, who,  just  as  the  translator  renders  a  word  into  vocables  and 
symbols  intelligible  to  the  ear  of  each  African  tribe,  so  by  their 
lives,  their  iitterances,  and  their  manner  of  dying,  translated  into 
symbols  intelligible  to  the  heart  of  the  poor  African  the  great, 
eternal,  and  all-sufficient  truth  that  Jesus  Christ  died  on  the  Cross 
for  the  salvation  of  the  whole  human  race. 

Shall  we  err  in  saying  that  the  once  great  Church  of 
North  Africa  was  swept  away  by  Mohammed's  followers 
because  she  was  not  a  missionary  Church  1  "  She  stood 
there,"  said  Bishop  Wilberforce,  "  and  made  no  sign  to  the 
heathen  below  her ;  she  did  not  gather  into  the  Church, 
she  did  not  reproduce  the  Church  in  a  native  Church," 
The  Coptic  Church,  on  the  contrary,  sent  missionaries  to 
India,  and  she  still  exists  in  Egypt  and  Abyssinia,  though 
her  light  burns  feebly  and  is  obscured  by  much  that  is 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Apostolic  times. 


West  African  Missions 

The  slave  trade  was  used  in  the  providence  of  God  to 
lead  the  British  Churches  to  West  Africa;  and  Sierra 
Leone,  the  scene  of  Hawkins's  first  expedition  (p.  48), 
was  also  the  scene  of  the  first  triumphs  of  the  Cross. 
Granville  Sharpe,  Wilberforce,  and  their  coadjutors  settled 
there  the  slaves  freed  by  ]Mansfield's  decision,  and  others 
captured  from  slave  ships.  Zachary  Macaulay  was  a  dis- 
tinguished early  Governor  of  the  settlement.  In  1816  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  sent  as  the  schoolmaster  of  the 
colony    W.    A.    B.   Johnson,    the  converted  Whitechapel 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT 


173 


day-labourer,  who  had  said,  "  I  am  ready  to  go  to  Sierra 
Leone  and  die  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."      On 
his   arrival  Johnson  wrote   of   the    motley  collection   of 
representatives  from  many  tribes,   "If  ever  I  have  seen 
wretchedness,  it  has  been  to-day.     These  poor  degraded 
people  may  be  called  the  offscouring  of  Africa,  but  who 
Lord  will  not  make  His  converting 
them."     An  attack  of  yellow  fever 
I  years  of  faithful  and  fruitful  service. 
)d  calls  me,"  was  his  own  interpreta- 
of  his  ministry.     He  had,  however, 
nge.     There  were  hundreds  of  com- 
•ches,  and  in  1822  the  Chief- Justice 
]en  years  the  population  had  increased 
of  criminal  cases  at  quarter  sessions 
;o  six,  and  of  the  six  not  one  was  from 
(issionary  or  schoolmaster."     George 
^esleyans  contributed  their  share  to 
The  work  has  gone  on  under  many 
|)ointments.      The  great  loss  of  life 
climate  has  gained  for  Sierra  Leone 
hite  man's  grave."      Of  the  eleven 
r  wives  who  arrived  in  the  year  of 
ied  that  year,  and  three  more  within 
even  missionaries  and  their  wives  died 
y  years.     A  bishopric  was  established 
even  years  three  bishops  had  died  of 
fever,     islow  Sierra  Leone  has  ceased  to  be  a  mission-field. 
The  Church  is  "self-governing,  self-supporting,  and  self- 
extending,"  and  native  clergy  and  teachers  have  almost 
wholly  taken  the  place  of  Europeans. 

The  black  Kepublic  of  Liberia  (population  about  a 
million)  originated  in  the  settlement  of  freed  negroes  from 
America,  and  its  evangelisation  has  been  carried  on  by  the 
American  Churches.    The  Presbyterians  and  the  Methodists 


172  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

To  the  memory  of  Simon  of  Cyrene,  the  first  African  cross- 
bearer  ;  the  Eunuch  of  Ethiopia,  the  first  African  who  was  baptized  ; 
Apollos  of  Alexandria,  the  first  African  miglity  in  the  Scriptures  ; 
Cyprian  and  Augustine,  the  first  men,  and  Katharina,  Felicitas, 
and  Perpetua,  the  first  women  who  died  for  Christ  in  Africa  ;  Fru- 
mentius,  the  first  translator  of  God's  Word  into  a  language  of 
Africa ;  and  the  great  army  of  martyrs,  evangelists,  and  philanthro- 
pists, who,  just  as  the  translator  renders  a  word  into  vocables  and 
symbols  intelligible  to  the  ear  of  each  Aj 
lives,  their  utterances,  and  their  manner 
symbols  intelligible  to  the  heart  of  the 
eternal,  and  all-sufficient  truth  that  Jesus 
for  the  salvation  of  the  whole  human  race,  j 

Shall  we  err  in  saying  that  the 
North  Africa  was  swept  away  by 
because  she  was  not  a  missionary 
there,"  said  Bishop  Wilberforce,  "  am 
heathen  below  her ;    she  did  not  ga 
she  did  not  reproduce  the  Church 
The  Coptic  Church,  on  the  contrary, 
India,  and  she  still  exists  in  Egypt 
her  light  burns  feebly  and  is  obscu| 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Apostolic  ti 


West  African  Misi 

The  slave  trade  was  used  in  the 
lead  the  British  Churches  to  West 
Leone,  the  scene  of  Hawkins's  firs 
was  also  the  scene  of  the  first  triumphs  of  the  Cross. 
Granville  Sharpe,  Wilberforce,  and  their  coadjutors  settled 
there  the  slaves  freed  by  Mansfield's  decision,  and  others 
captured  from  slave  ships,  Zachary  Macaulay  was  a  dis- 
tinguished early  Governor  of  the  settlement.  In  1816  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  sent  as  the  schoolmaster  of  the 
colony    W.    A.    B,   Johnson,    the  converted  Whitechapel 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  173 

day-labourer,  who  had  said,  "  I  am  ready  to  go  to  Sierra 
Leone  and  die  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  On 
his  arrival  Johnson  wrote  of  the  motley  collection  of 
representatives  from  many  tribes,  "If  ever  I  have  seen 
wretchedness,  it  has  been  to-day.  These  poor  degraded 
people  may  be  called  the  offscouring  of  Africa,  but  who 
knows  whether  the  Lord  will  not  make  His  converting 
power  known  among  them."  An  attack  of  yellow  fever 
closed  Johnson's  seven  years  of  faithful  and  fruitful  service. 
"  I  cannot  live,  for  God  calls  me,"  was  his  own  interpreta- 
tion of  the  early  end  of  his  ministry.  He  had,  however, 
seen  a  marvellous  change.  There  were  hundreds  of  com- 
municants in  the  churches,  and  in  1822  the  Chief- Justice 
stated  that  "  while  in  ten  years  the  population  had  increased 
four-fold,  the  number  of  criminal  cases  at  quarter  sessions 
had  fallen  from  forty  to  six,  and  of  the  six  not  one  was  from 
any  village  under  a  missionary  or  schoolmaster."  George 
Warren  and  other  Wesleyans  contributed  their  share  to 
the  wonderful  change.  The  work  has  gone  on  under  many 
difficulties  and  disappointments.  The  great  loss  of  life 
due  to  the  unhealthy  climate  has  gained  for  Sierra  Leone 
the  name  of  "the  white  man's  grave."  Of  the  eleven 
missionaries  and  their  wives  who  arrived  in  the  year  of 
Johnson's  death,  six  died  that  year,  and  three  more  within 
eight  months.  Fifty-seven  missionaries  and  their  wives  died 
within  the  first  twenty  years.  A  bishopric  was  established 
in  1852,  and  within  seven  years  three  bishops  had  died  of 
fever.  Now  Sierra  Leone  has  ceased  to  be  a  mission-field. 
The  Church  is  "self-governing,  self-supporting,  and  self- 
extending,"  and  native  clergy  and  teachers  have  almost 
wholly  taken  the  place  of  Europeans. 

The  black  Republic  of  Liberia  (population  about  a 
million)  originated  in  the  settlement  of  freed  negroes  from 
America,  and  its  evangelisation  has  been  carried  on  by  the 
American  Churches.    The  Presbyterians  and  the  Methodists 


174  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

arrived  in  1 832.    The  pioneer  of  the  latter  was  Melville  Cox. 

"If  I  die,  you  must  come  and  write  my  epitaph,"  he  had 

said  to  a  friend  before  leaving  home.    "What  shall  I  write?" 

"  Write,  let  a  thousand  fall  before  Africa  be  given  up."    A 

few  months  ended  his  course,  but  many  successors  have 

entered  into  his  labours,  among  them  Bishop  William  Taylor, 

who  has  developed  self-supporting  missions  in  Africa,  and 

whose  work  is  also  carried  on  in 

Portuguese    West    Africa.      The 

Episcopal  and  Baptist  Churches 

have  likewise   done   noble  work 

in  Liberia,  and  the  Bishop  of  the 

former  church  is  a  coloured  man. 

Thousands  of  communicants  are 

found  in  the  churches,  which  with 

schools  are  established  in  almost 

every  village.     There  is,  however, 

much    ground   to    be   overtaken. 

The  people  do  not  seem  to  have 

Native  Pastor  of  Old  Calabar  been  fully  prepared  for  their  free- 

(U.p.  Church).  j         ^^j  ^j^^-^  influence  on  the 

Photo  by  Alex.  Ayton,  Edin.  . 

surrounding  heathenism  has  not 
yet  fulfilled  the  expectations  of  the  founders  of  the  Republic. 
The  Gold  Coast  is  strewn  with  the  graves  of  many 
missionaries.  Of  the  first  eight  German  workers  sent  out 
by  the  Basle  Mission,  four  died  within  a  few  weeks,  two 
returned  home  invalided,  and  the  other  two  had  soon  to 
withdraw.  The  great  mortality  continues,  for  the  mission 
lately  reported  thirteen  deaths  within  ten  months.  The 
Rev.  Joseph  Dun  well  died  at  Cape  Coast  Castle  in  1834, 
the  first  of  a  band  of  Wesleyan  heroes  who  have  not 
flinched  from  the  occupation  of  the  deadly  shores.  The 
horrors  witnessed  by  the  German  missionaries  when 
captive  at  Coomassie  until  they  were  relieved  by  Sir 
Garnet  Wolseley  are  still  fresh  in   many  minds.      Old 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  175 

Calabar,  to  the  west  of  the  Cameroons,  has  been  the 
scene  of  many  victories  over  superstition  and  cruel  rites 
gained  by  the  Rev.  H.  M.  Waddell  of  the  United  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Scotland  and  worthy  successors  like  the 
venerable  Anderson,  not  long  gone  to  his  rest.  Many 
converts  have  been  made  and  much  literary  and  educa- 
tional work  accomplished.  The  English  Bafjtist  Mission 
to  the  Cameroons  had  its  origin  in  Jamaica,  like  that  of 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church  during  the  wave  of 
enthusiasm  which  succeeded  the  West  Indian  emancipa- 
tion. "  We  have  been  made  slaves  for  men ;  we  can  be 
made  slaves  for  Christ,"  said  some  of  the  freed  men.  And 
from  the  island  of  Fernando  Po  the  mission  spread  under 
the  direction  of  such  men  as  Alfred  Saker,  the  industrial 
missionary,  who  laboured  till  1876.  The  work  is  now  in 
the  hands  of  the  Basle  Mission,  as  the  Germans,  by  a 
narrow  and  short-sighted  colonial  policy— in  striking 
contrast  to  the  British  custom — forbade  any  language 
but  German  when  the  Cameroons  came  under  their 
sway.  In  this  policy  they  but  follow  the  example 
of  other  Continental  nations,  subordinating  the  claims 
of  the  Gospel  to  the  cause  of  political  supremacy.^ 
The    same    intolerance    has    prevented    missionaries    of 

1  The  action  of  Germany  in  annexing  Naraaqua  and  Damara  Lands 
and  other  tracts  led  to  the  "scramble"  for  Africa  hy  the  European 
Powers,  which  resulted  in  the  partition  of  the  unappropriated  regions 
by  the  Congress  of  Berlin  (1884-85)  and  by  subsequent  interiiational 
conventions.  The  following,  taken  from  W.  &  A.  K.  Johnston's  atlas, 
gives  approximately  the  extent  and  population  of  their  respective  pos- 
sessions (see  map  of  Africa),  and  the  figures  are  significant  in  view  of 
the  future  evangelisation  of  Africa  : — 

British  Possessions  and  Protectorates— Axesi.  in  English  square 
miles  2,479,073,  Population  40,000,000  ;  French— K.  3,000,630,  P. 
27,099,000;  Portiiguese—K.  735,304,  P.  4,431,970;  Spanish— K. 
213,770,  P.  437,000  ;  Gen)mn—A.  866,000,  P.  5,110,000  ;  Italian— 
A.  602,000,  P.  6,300,000  ;  Conijo  Free  State— {novf  practically  a 
Belgian  protectorate)  A.  900,000,  P.  30,000,000. 

The  remaining  area  under  the  Turkish  Empire  and  native  free 
States  represents  about  22  per  cent  of  the  whole. 


176  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

other  nationalities  from  settling  in  French  Senegambia, 
though  the  Paris  Evangelical  Society  represents  there 
the  Reformed  Churches,  and  the  English  Wesleyans 
are  labouring  in  the  neighbouring  British  settlement 
on  the  Gambia.  The  Jesuit  intrigues  in  Spanish 
Fernando  Po  have  not  succeeded  in  displacing  the 
Primitive  Methodists  or  in  preventing  them  from  found- 
ing stations  on  the  mainland.  The  Bremen  Mission 
joins  with  the  Basle  Society  in  caring  for  German 
Togoland,  between  Ashanti  and  Dahomey,  and  to  the 
south  of  the  Cameroon s  the  American  Presbyterians  and 
the  French  Evangelical  Mission  have  made  a  good  begin- 
ning on  the  Gaboon. 

Among  the  most  hopeful  of  the  West  African  fields  is 
the  Niger  region,  in  which  many  distinguished  native 
Africans  have  borne  witness.  Prominent  among  them  was 
Samuel  Crowther,  a  freed  slave-boy  of  the  Slave  Coast, 
who  was  in  1827  the  first  pupil  enrolled  in  the  Church 
Missionary  Society's  Fourah  Bay  College  at  Sierra  Leone, 
now  affiliated  with  the  Durham  University.  Crowther 
afterwards  studied  in  London,  and  went  with  Henry 
Townsend  as  an  ordained  missionary  to  his  own  Yoruba 
people  in  the  newly-founded  city  of  Abeokuta.  There  he 
found  his  mother,  from  whom  he  had  been  torn  by  the 
Mohammedan  raiders  twenty -five  years  before,  and  she 
was  the  first  to  be  received  into  the  native  church.  It 
was  the  chiefs  of  these  Yorubas  who  sent  in  1848  to 
Queen  Victoria  the  message  of  thanks  for  missionary 
teachers  and  the  suppression  of  slavery,  accomi^anied  by 
an  entreaty  for  the  development  of  legitimate  trade — a 
message  which  elicited  from  Her  Majesty  the  memorable 
reply :  "  Commerce  alone  will  not  make  a  nation  great 
and  happy  like  England.  England  has  become  great  and 
happy  by  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  and  Jesus 
Christ."     The  subsequent  history  of  the  Y^oruba  Mission 


^ 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  177 

has  been  (•li(3(|uered.      It  was  for  a  time  discontinned,  but 
was  resumed  in  1879. 

It  is  as  the  Bishop  of  the  Niger,  with  liis  seat  at  Lagos, 
that  Crowther  is  best  known.  The  river  Niger,  having  a 
course  of  2000  miles,  is  the  great  waterway  of  West  Africa 
(the  Congo  we  connect  with  Central  Africa).  Crowther 
accompanied  Lord  Palmerston's  first  expedition  of  1841, 
sent  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  slave  trade,  and  he  also  went 
with  the  more  fortunate  expedition  of  1854.  The  Upper 
Niger  region  is  peopled  by  Mo- 
hammedans and  is  under  French 
protection.  The  Lower  Niger, 
Avith  its  greatest  tributary,  the 
Binue,  is  in  the  territory  of  the 
British  Niger  Company,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  its  basin  are  mostly 
pagan.  ]Many  stations  were 
planted  on  the  river  by  Crowther, 
and  he  superintended  the  mission 
till  his  death  at  Lagos  on   th^  _ 

last  day  of  1891.       The   Nigei'  j...hui  ck^uihik 

Mission  has  entailed  much  suffer-       From  TIw  Missionary  Review  of 

ing  on  the  workers  and  has  cost  *^^^  World. 

many  lives.  Of  the  fourteen  fellow-voyagers  of  the  heroic 
Mrs.  Hinderer,  who  went  to  join  her  equally  heroic  husband 
in  1853,  ten  had  died  in  two  years.  Crowther's  successor, 
Bishop  Hill,  fell  before  he  reached  his  destination.  A 
special  feature  of  the  mission  has  been  the  preponderance 
of  native  missionaries.  A  great  hindrance  has  been  caused 
by  the  evil  lives  of  unworthy  traders  and  by  the  traffic  in 
rum  and  other  spirits  from  Europe  and  America.  A 
member  of  the  Government  of  Lagos  has  declared  that 
the  liquor  imported  into  that  colony  amounts  to  1,230,000 
gallons  annually  !  No  wonder  the  traffic  has  been  de- 
scribed as  having  "  all  the  enormity  of  systematic  cruelty 

12 


178  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

to  children — a  conspiracy  of  representatives  of  civilised 
nations  against  simple  tribes  of  men  who  know  not  what 
they  do."  This  detestable  traffic  is  one  of  the  greatest 
obstacles  to  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Niger  and 
other  regions  of  Africa,  and  is  a  subject  which  should  stir 
the  conscience  of  every  Christian  nation.  The  time  for 
reconsidering  the  liquor  clause  of  the  Brussels  Act  of 
1890-91  is  at  hand,  and  there  is  the  hope  that  the  Govern- 
ments of  Europe  will  take  advantage  of  the  occasion  to 
restrict,  if  not  to  prohibit,  the  traffic,  so  demoralising  to 
the  natives  and  so  destructive  of  legitimate  commerce. 


South  Africa 

The  South  African  mission -field  presents  a  marked 
contrast  to  that  of  West  Africa.  The  "white  man's 
sanatorium "  might  appropriately  describe  it  in  place  of 
the  "white  man's  grave."  Not  the  profits  of  the  slave 
trade,  but  the  desire  of  colonising  first  attracted  Europeans. 
We  have  noticed  (p.  75)  the  struggles  for  its  jjosses- 
sion  between  the  Dutch  and  British,  and  we  have  referred 
to  the  pioneer  missions  of  the  Moravians.  "Never,"  says 
Dr.  Gust,  "  was  such  a  field  for  the  Christian  missionary, 
and  he  has  little  to  fear  either  from  the  climate  or  the 
people."  The  missionary  has,  however,  had  his  own  share 
of  troubles,  largely  consequent  on  the  inevitable  conflicts 
which  arise  when  the  interests  of  the  colonist  and  gold- 
seeker  of  civilised  nations  conflict  with  those  of  uncivilised 
peoples.  The  gradual  progress  from  the  coast  northwards 
to  the  Zambesi  and  Chuene  has  been  attained  only  after  a 
long  and  painful  struggle.  Now  the  greater  part  of  South 
Africa  may  be  said  to  be  a  Christian  and  Protestant  land  ; 
and,  with  the  exception  of  the  strip  belonging  to  Portugal, 
it  is  under  the  laws  of  Protestant  rulers.     A  third  ot  its 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT 


179 


population  is  nominally  Christian,     South  Africa  has  been 
called  the  "  light  end  of  the  Dark  Continent." 

In  the  closing  year  of  last  century  Vanderkemp  (p. 
94)  arrived  at  Cape  Town  as  the  pioneer  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society.  He  worked  with  untiring  zeal  for 
the  regeneration  of  the  despised  Hottentots,  and  the 
secret  of  the  influence  exerted  over  them  by  this  distin- 
guished linguist,  })hysician,  and  scientist  was  the  great 
love  which  prompted  him  to  say, 
"I  should  not  fear  to  offer  my 
life  for  the  least  child  among 
them."  As  the  mouthpiece  and 
champion  of  the  natives  against 
the  tyrannical  treatment  of  the 
Boers,  Vanderkemp  was  hated 
with  a  bitter  hatred.  The  Boers 
repeatedly  tried  to  shoot  him 
and  to  destroy  his  Hottentot 
settlement  of  Bethelsdorp  in  the 
vicinity  of  Algoa  Bay,  which  he 
carried  on  till  his  death  in 
1811. 

Across  the  Orange  River  in  Great  Namaqualand 
lived  a  notorious  Hottentot  chief,  Africaner,  an  outlaw 
who  had  murdered  his  Dutch  master,  and  whose  very 
name  had  become  a  terror  to  the  native  tribes  and  the 
colonists.  To  the  neighbourhood  of  his  kraal  the  brothers 
Albrecht  went  in  1807,  suffering  terrible  hardships  on  the 
journey  as  well  as  at  the  station  they  founded.  Those 
heroic  men  died  in  a  few  years,  and  it  was  to  carry  on 
their  work  that  Pvobert  Moffat,  the  Scottish  gardener,  who 
lived  to  become  the  Nestor  of  South  African  missionaries, 
set  his  face  northwards  in  1807.  He  went  thither  under 
the  influence  of  John  Cami»bell,  the  London  pastor,  whose 
prolonged  tours  in  South  Africa  did  much  to  further  the 


Dr.  Vanderkemp. 
From  The  Story  of  the  L.M.S. 


180 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


mission  cause.  Under  Moffat's  influence  Africaner,  who 
had  been  previously  baptized  by  Ebner,  became  a  changed 
man.  A  striking  proof  of  the  civilising  effects  of  Christian 
missions  was  given  when  Moffat  took  Africaner  to  the 
Cape.  The  Governor  was  greatly  impressed,  and  spent  the 
price  set  upon  the  outlaw's  head  on  presents  for  himself 
and  his  people.  A  Dutch  farmer,  whose  uncle  had  been 
killed  by  Africaner,  could  only 
exclaim  on  seeing  the  trans- 
formation wrought,  "  O  God, 
what  a  miracle  of  Thy  power  !  " 
Africaner's  subsequent  conduct 
proved  that  the  change  had 
been  real.  Before  his  death 
he  gathered  his  people  together 
and  exhorted  them  to  remember 
that  they  were  no  longer  savages 
but  Christians,  and  men  of 
peace. 

In  1820  Moffat,  with  his 
young  wife,  Mary  Smith,  began 
his  remarkable  mission  to  the 
Bechuaxas  beyond  the  Orange  River.  In  the  following 
year  they  settled,  with  their  colleague,  Hamilton,  on  the 
river  Kuruman,  700  miles  north  of  Cape  Town.  From  that 
centre  they  carried  on  their  evangelistic  and  civilising  w^ork, 
combined  wdth  geographical  exploration,  in  Bechuanaland 
and  Matabeleland.  At  first  they  met  with  much  dis- 
couragement from  the  apathy,  opposition,  and  feuds  of 
the  natives  as  well  as  the  unworthy  conduct  of  nominal 
Christians,  but  signs  of  spiritual  life  soon  appeared,  and 
the  six  baptisms  of  1829  were  the  first  fruits  of  an 
abundant  harvest.  It  was  ]\Ioffat  who,  during  a  visit  to 
England,  attracted  David  Livingstone  to  Africa,  and 
when    Livingstone    started    for    Kuruman    in     1840    he 


Robert  Mofkat. 
Photo  by  Elliott  and  Fry. 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  181 

carried  with  liim  500  copies  of  Moffat's  Secliuana  New 
Testament.  A  worthy  memorial  of  Moffat  has  been 
erected  in  the  fine  institution  at  Kuruman.  A  notable 
trophy  of  his  labours  and  of  those  of  successors  like  Mac- 
kenzie, Price,  and  Hepburn  is  Khama,  King  of  the  Bam- 
angwato  branch  of  the  Bechuanas,  who  is  recognised  by 
Europeans  and  natives  alike  as  a  brave  and  high-minded 
Christian  gentleman.  The  manner  in  which  Khama  has 
sought  to  save  his  subjects  from  the  curse  of  strong  drink 
has  won  him  universal  admiration  and  sympathy,  and  his 
efforts  to  reclaim  the  wandering  and  savage  Masarwa  tribe 
have  been  described  by  Mr.  Selous,  the  hunter,  as  "  the 
work  of  converting  a  tribe  of  miserable  nomadic  savages  into 
a  happy  pastoral  people."  Khama  unhesitatingly  ascribes 
his  position  to-day  "to  the  influence  of  Christ's  Gospel, 
brought  to  him  by  the  agents  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society."  The  Society  has  also  a  mission  among  the 
Matabele,  which  has  become  more  hopeful  since  the  fall 
of  the  chief  Lobengula. 

Many  efforts  have  been  made  to  reach  the  Kaffirs  (or, 
as  they  call  themselves,  the  Amaxosas  or  Fingoes)  to  the 
east  of  Cape  Colony.  William  Shaw  was  the  chaplain  of 
a  band  of  Wesleyan  emigrants  who  settled  in  1820  at 
Albany,  north  of  Algoa  Bay.  After  a  few  years  Shaw 
gave  himself  up  to  mission  work,  and  established  a  chain 
of  stations  along  the  coast  as  far  as  Port  Natal.  Though 
the  work  was  sadly  interfered  with  by  the  frequently 
recurring  Kaffir  wars,  it  has  proved  that  the  Kaffirs  are 
capable  of  becoming  devoted  disciples  of  Christ.  The  Kaf- 
f rarian  work  of  the  Scottish  Free  and  United  Presbyterian 
Churches  (founded  by  the  Glasgow  Missionary  Society,  p. 
90)  has  also  been  greatly  blessed.  The  Kev.  Tiyo  Soga, 
a  convert  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  was  a  dis- 
tinguished preacher  and  translator,  and  his  name  and 
fame  are  maintained  by  his  medical  missionary  son.     The 


182  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

chief  centres  of  the  Free  Church  are  at  Lovedale  and 
Blythswood.  The  Lovedale  Missionary  Institution,  founded 
by  Go  van  in  1841,  has,  under  Dr.   Stewart,  attained  a 

position  of  eminence  as  a  high- 
class  educational  institute  and 
training  home  for  ministers 
and  teachers.  Industrial 
work  is  emphasised,  and  a 
medical  department  has  been 
recently  added. 

An  interesting  feature  of 
South  African  mission  work 
is  the  large  number  of  agencies 
from  Continental  Europe. 
The    Berlin,    Rhenish,    Paris, 

Re\%  Dr.  Stewart  of  Lovedale.        -»y  .  i      tt 

JN  orwegian,  and  Hermanns- 
burg  Societies  chose  South  Africa  as  their  first  field. 
The  Berlin  Society  conducts  extensive  operations  in  Cape 
Colony,  Xatal,  Orange  Free  State,  and  the  Transvaal. 
The  Rhenish  Society's  work  in  Cape  Colony  is  self-sup- 
porting. Schreuder  was  the  pioneer  of  the  Norwegian 
Mission  to  Zululand,  and  his  influence  w^as  such  that 
Cetewayo  spared  his  station  during  the  Zulu  war,  while 
others  were  either  disturbed  or  destroyed.  The  Paris 
Missionary  Society  has  conducted  a  notable  work  among 
the  Ba-Sothos  or  Basutos  (one  of  the  largest  tribes  of  the 
Bechuanas)  to  the  east  of  the  Orange  Free  State.  The 
missionaries  found  on  their  arrival  in  1833  many  friends 
among  the  descendants  of  the  Huguenot  refugees  who  had 
sought  an  asylum  at  the  Cape  after  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes.  Their  early  work  in  Basutoland  is 
closely  identified  with  the  name  of  M.  Cassalis.  The  chief, 
Moshesh,  was  converted  in  18G9,  and  the  prospects  of  the 
mission  have  been  bright  since  Basutoland  became  a  British 
Crown   colony.     The  Hermannsburg   ^Missionary   Society 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  183 

was  the  outcome  of  the  living  faith  of  Louis  Harms,  the 
l)astor  of  the  parish  of  Hermannsburg,  in  the  kingdom  of 
Hanover.  Dr.  Fleming  Stevenson,  in  Fraying  and  WorJc- 
ing,  has  told  the  inspiring  story  how  the  previously  indif- 
ferent German  peasants  were  transformed  by  Harms's 
teaching  and  example  into  missionary  enthusiasts,  and 
how  the  first  band  of  their  number — colonists  and  mis- 
sionaries— sailed  from  Hamburg  in  their  own  ship,  the 
Gandace,  in  1883,  followed  by  the  parting  advice  from  the 
pastor,  to  pray — "  As  long  as  you  pray,  it  will  go  well  with 
you,  body  and  soul."  A  large  tract  of  land  was  bought 
near  Pietermaritzburg,  in  Natal,  and  to  this  "new  Her- 
mannsburg "  many  more  parishioners  went  to  Christianise 
the  Zulus.  Harms  in  seven  years  had  raised  £20,000,  all  in 
answer  to  prayer,  for  his  rule  was  never  to  ask  people 
directly  for  money.  His  followers  carried  on  and  extended 
the  work  after  his  death,  and  now  there  is  a  network  of 
stations  among  the  Zulus  and  Bechuanas  of  the  Transvaal, 
with  over  50  missionaries  and  12,000  communicants.  The 
Swedish  Church  also  conducts  a  mission  in  Natal  and  Zulu- 
land,  and  the  Swiss  Mission  (Canton  de  Vaud)  works  in  the 
Transvaal  as  well  as  in  the  south  of  Portuguese  East  Africa. 
The  American  Board  of  Commissioners ^  was  the  first 
to  enter  Zululand,  its  missionaries,  Grout,  Champion, 
and  Adams,  being  led  thither  in  1834  by  Dr.  Philips  of 
the  London  Missionary  Society,  who  was  long  one  of 
the  most  influential  of  South  African  missionaries.  In 
spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  successive  chiefs,  Dingaan, 
Panda,  and  Cetewayo,  much  good  work  has  been  accom- 
plished, and  the  literary  efforts  of  the  missionaries  have 
been  noteworthy.  Under  the  auspices  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland  is  conducted  the  Gordon  Memorial  Mission  to 
the  Zulus,  founded  by  the  Dowager  Countess  of  Aberdeen 
in  memory  of  her  late  son,  who  had  desired  to  begin  such  a 
^  Has  also  a  mission  iu  Portuguese  West  Africa. 


184  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

mission.  The  Church  of  England,  too,  through  the  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  is  largely  represented 
throughout  South  Africa.  Its  work  was  mainly  founded 
by  Eobert  Gray,  the  first  bishop  of  Cape  Town  (conse- 
crated 1847),  whose  interest  in  the  Malayan  (Moham- 
medan) emigrants  and  in  the  KaflSrs  is  remembered  with 
deep  gratitude.  The  great  development  in  its  colonial 
and  missionary  operations  within  half  a  century  is  seen  in 
the  present  nine  bishoprics  of  South  Africa.  The  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Scotland  co-operates.  The  English 
Society  of  Friends  works  in  Kaffirland.  One  of  the  most 
gratifying  features  of  recent  years  is  the  rapidly  growing 
missionary  interest  of  the  Dutch  Eeformed  Church  of 
South  Africa,  which  had  long  shown  an  unfortunate 
indifference  to  the  sj^iritual  interests  of  the  natives. 

To  sum  up,  it  is  calculated  that  there  are  now  nearly 
400  missionaries  representing  the  above-named  Societies  in 
South  Africa,  and  there  must  be  about  200,000  native 
Christians  in  connection  with  the  various  churches. 


Central  Africa 

The  Zambesi,  Great  Lakes,  and  Congo  Basins 

Geography  and  missions  have  gone  hand  in  hand  in 
Central  Africa.  In  treating  of  the  entrance  to  the  interior, 
we  might  begin  with  the  discoveries  of  Krapf  and  Rebman 
on  the  east  coast,  but  it  is  perhaps  more  natural  to  start 
from  South  Africa  as  the  base  for  the  northern  advance, 
with  the  Scottish  medical  missionary.  Dr.  David  Living- 
stone, as  the  central  figure.  Livingstone  had  inclined  to 
China,  drawn  thither  by  the  spell  of  Dr.  Gutzlafi's  Voyages. 
That  and  other  missionary  books  which  influenced  the 
weaver-boy  he  got  from  the  library  of  the  Blantyre 
Village  Missionary  Society  founded  by   Deacon  Neil,  an 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  185 

obscure  servant  of  God,  ^vllose  ] nimble  efforts  were  thus 
richly  blessed,  and  are  worthy  of  remembrance  as  well 
as  of  imitation.  We  have  seen  how  Moffat's  influence 
changed  Livingstone's  plans,  and  even  before  he  left 
London  in  1840  the  bent  was  given  to  his  life's  work  by 
Moffat's  advice  to  "  push  on  to  the  vast  unoccupied  dis- 
tricts to  the  north."  By  the  lessons  which  he  received  in 
the  use  of  the  quadrant  on  the  voyage  to  the  Cape,  he 
was  })reparing  himself  for  crossing  Africa  and  for  taking 
those  geographical  observations 
declared  by  Sir  Thomas  Maclear 
to  be  the  finest  he  had  ever  met 
with.  Livingstone  served  an 
apprenticeship  at  Kuruman,  and 
saw  enough  of  mission  work 
there  to  make  him  a  believer  in  ^  ''\^ 

its  true  success.      He  then  struck     ^^p>.  ^1^ 

out  new   paths   for  himself,  and     '^-  'M 

even    while    comparatively    near 
Kuruman  he  had  a  taste  of  the  *  ^ 

peculiar  joy   of    the    missionary  damu  i.ivi.N<.«ioNE. 

pioneer.       "  I  bless  God,"  he  said,     From  his  Biography  by  Thomas 
u  J.1     i  TT    T,  c  ^  J.1  Hughes  (Macmillan  and  Co.). 

"  that  He  has  conferred  on  me  the 

privilege  and  honour  of  being  the  first  messenger  of  mercy 
that  has  trod  these  regions."  But  before  he  plunged  into 
the  far  interior  he  had  some  years  of  more  or  less  settled 
work  at  the  new  stations  of  Mabotsa,  Chonuane,  and  Kolo- 
beng,  along  with  his  wife,  Mary,  the  eldest  child  of  the 
Moffats,  to  whom  he  quaintly  says  he  "screwed  up 
courage  to  put  a  question  beneath  one  of  the  fruit  trees  " 
at  Kuruman.  At  their  successive  stations  he  was  "  the 
jack-of-all-trades  without  doors,"  and  she  "  the  maid-of-all- 
work  within."  Sechele,  the  chief  at  Chonuane,  pathetically 
asked  "  why  Livingstone's  forefathers  had  not  come  to 
teach  his  ancestors,  for  they  all  passed  away  into  dark- 


186  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

ness  without  knowing  whither  tliey  were  going."  And 
what  of  the  millions  still  unreached  in  the  unknown 
beyond  !  Henceforth  the  God-given  work  of  his  life  was 
to  pioneer  in  Central  Africa.  "  I  shall  open  up  a  path  to 
the  interior  or  perish."  But  it  was  as  no  mere  traveller. 
"I  am  a  missionary,  heart  and  soul,"  he  wrote  to  his 
father.  "  God  had  an  only  Son,  and  He  was  a  missionary 
and  a  physician.  A  poor  imitation  of  Him  I  am,  or  wish 
to  be."  To  the  London  Missionary  Society  he  wrote  on 
the  eve  of  the  first  great  journey  :  "  Cannot  the  love  of 
Christ  carry  the  missionary  where  the  slave  trade  carries 
the  trader  ? "  "If  we  wait  till  we  run  no  risk,  the  Gospel 
will  never  be  introduced  into  the  interior,"  was  his  reply 
to  those  urging  caution  and  prudence.  His  wife  and 
children  were  sent  home — not,  however,  before  they  had 
shared  the  privations  of  the  forward  movement.  The 
keen  suflFerings  and  the  great  dangers  encountered  on  his 
travels  he  met  in  the  strength  of  the  promise  of  "all 
power  "  which  accompanied  the  Lord's  command  to  "  Go"  ; 
for,  as  he  wrote  at  a  trying  and  critical  period,  "  It  is  the 
word  of  a  gentleman  of  the  most  sacred  and  strictest 
honour,  and  there  is  an  end  on't."  His  firm  conviction 
was  : — "  My  life  is  charmed  till  my  work  is  done." 

When  Livingstone  returned  to  Britain  (1857)  he  found 
himself  the  most  famous  man  of  the  day,  and  his  visit 
made  the  Dark  Continent  "  the  most  interesting  part  of 
the  globe  to  Englishmen."  He  left  with  the  students  of 
Cambridge  a  sacred  charge,  which,  as  we  shall  see,  has 
had  far-reaching  consequences  for  the  evangelisation  of 
Africa.     He  told  them  : — 

1  beg  to  direct  your  attention  to  Africa.  I  know  that  in  a  few 
years  I  shall  be  cut  off  in  that  country  which  is  now  open.  Do  not 
let  it  be  shut  again.  I  go  back  to  Africa  to  try  to  open  a  path  for 
commerce  and  Christianity.  Do  you  carry  out  the  work  which  I 
have  begun  ;  I  leave  it  with  you. 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  187 

He  returned  in  1859  as  the  leader  of  a  Government 
exi)edition,  accompanied  by  his  "guardian  angel,"  as  he 
termed  his  wife.  Alas  !  he  soon  laid  her  in  a  solitary 
grave  on  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi,  and  the  usually 
reserved  man  cried,  "  Oh,  my  IVfary,  my  Mary  !  how  often 
have  we  longed  for  a  quiet  home  since  you  and  I  were 
cast  adrift  at  Kolobeng."  But  the  spirit  of  the  great 
man  remained  undaunted,  and  he  set  himself  to  the 
further  exploration  of  the  Zambesi,  Shire,  the  Lakes, 
and  the  Congo  and  Nile  sources.  Another  visit  home 
intervened,  with  a 
trip  to  India,  where 
he  got  the  now 
famous  "  Nassick  " 
boys.  Everywhere 
he  was  "heart -sore 
and  sick  of  human 
blood  "  as  he  crossed 
the  baleful  track 
of  the  Arab  slave 
dealers,  strewn  as  it 

was  with  the  dead  and  those  dying  of  a  broken  heart, — "  the 
strangest  disease  I  have  ever  seen  in  this  country  ...  it 
attacks  only  the  free  who  are  captured."  No  news  having 
been  received  of  Livingstone  for  two  years,  Henry  M.  Stanley 
was  sent  to  search  for  him  in  1871  by  the  New  York 
Herald.  They  met  at  Ujiji,  on  the  shores  of  Tanganyika, 
and  after  they  parted,  on  15th  March  1872,  no  white 
man  again  looked  upon  "  the  bent  figure  in  gray."  Four 
days  later  he  wrote  in  his  diary,  "  My  birthday.  My  Jesus, 
my  King,  my  life,  my  all !  I  again  dedicate  my  whole 
soul  to  Thee — accept  me."  On  the  1st  May  following  he 
concluded  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Herald  with  the  words, 
now  inscribed  on  his  tomb,  "  All  that  I  can  say  in  my  soli- 
tude is,  may  Heaven's  richest  blessing  come  down  on  every 


188  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

one— American,  English,  or  Turk — who  will  help  to  heal 
this  open  sore  of  the  w^orld,"  and  that  day  twelve  months 
he  was  found  dead  upon  his  knees  in  the  lonely  hut  at 
Ilala,  near  Lake  Bangweolo.  Then  followed  one  of  those 
memorable  incidents  which  are  the  precious  legacy  of 
the  human  race.  His  black  servants,  Susi  and  Chumah, 
called  together  the  whole  of  the  party,  and  not  a  single 
man  of  the  fifty-six  faltered  when  they  heard  their  plans. 
The  heart  of  Livingstone  was  fittingly  buried  under  a 
tree  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  and  Jacob  WaiuAvright,  one  of 
the  "Nassick"  boys,  read  over  it  the  burial  service.  The 
body  was  embalmed,  for  those  faithful  sons  of  Africa 
determined  that  the  remains  of  their  beloved  master  and 
benefactor  should  be  handed  over  to  his  own  kith  and 
kin.  And  they  carried  them  a  year's  march  to  the  coast. 
"  The  story  stands  alone  in  history,"  says  Mr.  Tom  Hughes, 
the  biographer  of  Livingstone.  "The  ten  thousand 
had  Xenophon  still  alive  to  lead  them  back,  and  they 
were  soldiers  and  Greeks  ;  but  Livingstone  was  dead,  and 
his  men  negroes,  and  most  of  them  recently  freed  slaves." 
Susi  and  Chumah  did  not  leave  the  body  till  it  was 
deposited  by  a  proud  though  sorrowing  nation  in  the 
centre  of  the  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey  on  15th  April 
1874.  What  could  more  eloquently  testify  to  the  living 
power  of  a  strong  Christian  man !  "A  more  perfect 
example  of  a  downright,  simple,  honest  life,  whether  in 
contact  with  queens  or  slave-boys,  one  may  safely  say,  is 
not  on  record  on  our  planet." 

Most  of  the  missionary  efforts  to  reach  Central  Africa 
owe  their  origin  to  the  interest  awakened  by  Livingstone 
or  by  Stanley,  who  went  in  search  of  him.  The  electrical 
influence  of  Livingstone's  charge  to  the  Cambridge  students 
resulted  in  the  Universities'  Mission.  Charles  Frederick 
]\Iackenzie,  the  Scotsman,  and  second  wrangler,  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  in  1861,  and  led  forth  the  first  party  of  five 


THE  DARK  COXTIXENT  189 

missionaries,  who,  under  Livingstone's  personal  direction, 
settled  at  Magomero,  in  the  Shire  highlands,  near  Lake 
Shirwa.  One  of  their  earliest  acts  was  to  rescue  ninety 
slaves,  who  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  settlement.  l>ut 
calamity  ui)on  calamity  overtook  the  enteri)rise.  The 
Bishop  and  three  others  soon  found  African  graves, 
and  only  Horace  \Yaller  was  left  of  the  original  party. 
Mackenzie's  successor,  Bishop  Tozer,  changed  the  seat 
of  the  mission  to  the  island  of  Zanzibar.  There  a 
good  work  has  been  carried  on  among  freed  slaves, 
a  work  closely  associated  with  the 
names  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere  and  Sir 
John  Kirk.  Stations  have  been 
planted  over  a  thousand  miles  of 
the  mainland  to  Lake  Nyassa,  the 
very  heart  of  the  slave-yielding 
region,  and  farther  south  almost 
to  the  scene  of  the  former  disasters. 
An  indication  of  the  change 
wrought  in   a  lew  years  is   given   ^        v..     „     .    ,     T^ 

^  .  From   his   Memoir  by   Dr. 

in  the  beautiful   church    built    by      Goodwin. 
Bishop   Steere   on  the  site  of  the 

old  slave  mart  at  Zanzibar.  The  grave  of  the  good 
Bishop,  Avho  did  invalualile  work,  too,  by  his  transla- 
tions into  the  widespread  Swahili  language,  occupies  the 
spot  where  stood  the  whipping  post,  at  which  "  many  an 
unhappy  African  had  in  years  gone  by  writhed  under  the 
cruel  lash  of  the  slave  owner."  Zanzibar  became  a  British 
Protectorate  in  1890. 

The  keen  interest  excited  in  Scotland  by  Livingstone's 
death  resulted  in  a  joint  expedition  under  E.  D.  Young  of 
the  Royal  Navy,  who  had  already  served  under  Living- 
stone in  Africa.  The  object  was  to  take  steps  to  com* 
memorate  the  distinguished  Scotsman  by  carrying  out 
his  cherished  design   of  founding   industrial  missions  in 


Bishop  Mackenzie. 


190 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


the  highlands  of  the  Shire  and  Nyassa  regions.  The 
party  included  Mr.  Henry  Henderson  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  Dr.  Robert  Laws,  representing  the  Free 
Church,  as  well  as  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  (of 
which  Dr.  Laws  is  a  missionary),  and  later,  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  of  South  Africa. 

The  Free  Church  pioneer  chose  Lake  Nyassa ;  the 
Ilala  was  launched  on  its  waters  and  the  Livingstonia 
Mission  founded  at  Cape  Maclear,  at  the  south  end  of 
the  Lake.  But  the  site  was 
found  to  be  unhealthy.  When 
Professor  Henry  Drummond 
visited  the  deserted  station  he 
was  led  by  a  native  into  the 
forest,  "and  there  among  the 
mimosa  trees,  under  a  large 
granite  mountain,  were  four  or 
five  graves.  These  were  the 
missionaries."  A  new  centre 
was  formed  among  the  Atonga  at 
Bandawe,  150  miles  farther  north, 
and  other  stations  have  been 
founded  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Lake.  Dr.  Laws  continues  to  be  the  distinguished  head 
of  the  mission,  which  is  exercising  a  widespread  and 
beneficent  influence  in  stopping  the  slave  trade  and  such 
evil  customs  as  the  poison  ordeal.  There  has  been  a 
sifnificant  connection  between  this  mission  and  the  Free 
Church  work  in  South  Africa,  for,  according  to  Mr.  Tom 
Hughes,  "perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  of  all  the  Scottish 
missionary  work  has  been  done  amongst  the  Angoni  by 
Kaffir  pupils  of  Dr.  Stewart,  trained  at  Lovedale,  and 
sent  among  this  tribe,  who  still  retain  the  Kaffir  tongue 
in  their  northern  home." 

Henry   Henderson    proved   himself  a  wise   layer  of  a 


Dr.  Laws. 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  191 

foundation  when  he  chose  Blantyre  in  the  Shire  as  the 
site  of  the  Church  of  Scotland's  Mission.  The  mission, 
like  most  others  in  the  Dark  Continent,  has  had  to  pass 
through  many  a  day  of  darkness  and  trial,  and  its  title- 
deeds  are  registered  in  grave  after  grave  of  devoted 
workers.^  The  mission  has  been  planned  on  an  industrial 
and  educational  basis,  with  Blantyre,  Domasi,  and  M'lanji 
as  centres.  From  a  single  coffee  plant  reared  by  the 
missionaries  has  evolved  the  flourishing  planting  industry 
of  British  Central  Africa.  A  strong  active  church,  largely 
of  young  men,  is  .  ^ 
being  developed  by 
Dr.  Clement  Scott 
and  his  colleagues, 
and  the  character 
of  the  deacons 
and  other  native 
workers  gives  much 
promise.  The 

beautiful     mission 


.A«'' 

T, 

\< 

'  it 

J 


church     at     Blan-  i  ;,■,.,  v..  rnTKCH,  B.C.A. 

^      •^^    -L       T\  Fnmi  A  (iUinpstojM  cs^ioit. Work  and  Scenery  hy 

tyre,    built    by    Dr.  James  Reid,  Blantyre. 

Scott      with       his 

own  trained  native  labour,  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
African  mission-field.  It  is  owing  to  the  influence  of  the 
Scottish  missions  and  of  the  African  Lakes  Corporation 
(a  commercial  Company  which  was  formed  to  develop 
legitimate  trade,  free  from  the  evils  of  the  liquor  traffic) 
that  British  Central  Africa  is  now  a  thriving  British 
colony  instead  of  a  blighted  Portuguese  possession. 

The  London  Missionary  Society  has  also  paid  dearly 
in    lives    (including    that    of    its    well-known    Secretary 

1  See  The  Martyrs  of  Blantyre,  l>y  the  Rev.  Wni.  Robertson,  M.A. 
(Nisl)et)  ;  and  .1  Hero  of  the  Dark  Cuntinent,  by  tlic  Rev.  W.  H. 
Riiiikine,  F..1).  (Blackwood), 


192  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

Mullens)    in    establishing    its    mission    in    the    region    of 

Lake  Tanganyika.     The   expedition  was  led  by  Captain 

Hore,  R.N.,  whose  brave  wife  was  the  first  white  woman 

to  penetrate  that  part  of  Africa.      Arnot's  Garanganze  or 

Ketange   Mission   is  situated  to  the  west  of   Lake   Ban- 

gweolo,  and  in  German  East  Africa  the  ^Moravians,  the 

Berlin  Societies  (I.  and  IIL),  and  the  Leipzig  Society  have 

begun  work  under  ]\Ierensky  and  other  leaders.      On  the 

L^pper    Zambezi    the    Paris    Society    and    the     Primitive 

^Um^  Methodists  have  planted  stations. 

f  1  The  work    of    the  former  among 

,.    *  the  Ba-Piotsi  is  an  advanced  post 

of  its  Basuto  Mission,  and  under 

M.   Coillard    has    been    conducted 

with  dauntless  coura2;e  and  strikinf^ 


success. 

When  Krapf  was  driven  out  of 
Abyssinia  he  settled   in   1844   at 
Mombasa,  to  the  north  of  Zanzibar, 
and    two    years  later    was  joined 
Rev.  Dr.  J.  Lewis  Krapf.     by  Rebniau.      Though   the  direct 
Fromhi^  Travels.  results    of    those  two    missionary 

pioneers  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  great,  they  exer- 
cised a  striking  indirect  influence.  In  1873  Sir  Bartle 
Frere  found  Rebman  quite  blind,  but  still  immersed 
in  his  dictionaries  and  translations,  which  he  carried 
on  vfiih  the  help  of  his  faithful  attendant,  the  son 
of  his  first  convert.  Before  Krapf  died  on  his  knees 
at  "VVurtemburg  in  1881,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
his  forecast  made  thirty  years  before  come  true  regard- 
ing the  missionary  importance  of  the  great  waterways  of 
Africa,  and  his  proposal  for  a  chain  of  stations,  "  linking 
together  the  eastern  and  western  coasts,"  being  faced  by 
the  Christian  Church.     In   1874  the  Church  Missionary 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  193 

Society  founded  Freretown,  on  the  mainland  opposite 
iSrombasa,  to  harbour  freed  slaves.  It  became  a  successful 
missionary  colony  under  Price,  who  had  trained  Living- 
stone's Nassick  boys  in  India,  and  he  brought  to  Frere- 
town 150  more  of  his  proteges.  Stations  such  as 
]\Iamboia  and  M'pwapa  have  been  planted  in  the  in- 
terior. The  Swedish  Mission  (1861)  and  the  United 
Free  Methodist  Mission  (1865)  were  started  on  the 
suggestion  of  Krapf. 

The  crown  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society's  African 
work  is  its  Uganda  Mission.  It  originated  in  a  letter 
from  Stanley  challenging  Christendom  to  send  missionaries 
to  King  M'tesa,  who  was  said  to  be  ready  to  receive 
teachers.  Uganda,  between  Victoria  and  Albert  Nyanza, 
was  the  most  powerful  and  best  organised  state  in  Central 
Africa.  Although  the  difficulties  of  starting  a  mission 
in  a  practically  unknown  region  and  far  from  a  settled 
base  were  enormous,  the  interest  awakened  and  the 
money  at  once  subscribed  constrained  the  Society  to 
regard  the  appeal  as  a  call  of  God.  Lieutenant  Shergold 
Smith,  li.N.,  who  had  experienced  the  darkness  of  Africa 
in  Ashanti,  and  was  filled  with  love  to  the  Africans,  was 
appointed  leader,  and  the  first  band,  with  A.  M.  Mackay 
as  the  youngest  member,  left  in  1876.  Of  the  eight  who 
started,  only  three  reached  their  destination.  Shergold 
Smith  and  O'Neil  were  murdered  within  six  months,  and 
it  was  the  story  of  their  martyrdom  which  stirred  James 
Hannington  to  follow  in  their  train.  Much  of  the 
early  history  of  the  mission  gathers  round  the  life  of 
A.  M.  Mackay,  "  the  best  missionary  since  Livingstone," 
according  to  Stanley ;  and  there  are  few  finer  pictures  in 
missionary  or  other  history  than  that  of  the  brave,  saga- 
cious, and  tender-hearted  Aberdeenshire  man  alone  in 
Uganda.  How  he  appeared  in  his  trying  situation  has 
been  graphically  described  by  Stanley  : — 

13 


194 


MISSIONARY  EXPAXSION 


He  has  no  time  to  fret,  and  groan,  and  weep,  and  God  knows 

if  ever  man  had  reason  to  think  of  graves,  and  worms,  and  oblivion, 

and  to  be  doleful,  and  lonely,  and  sad,  Mackay  had  when,  after 

murdering  his  bishop  and  burning  his 

]>apils,    strangling    his   converts    and 

clubbing    to   death   his   dark    friends, 

Mwanga   turned   his  eye  of  death  on 

him.     And  yet  the  little  man  met  it 

with  calm  blue  eyes  that  never  winked. 

To  see  one  man  of  this  kind  working 

day  after  day  for  twelve  years  bravely, 

and  without  a  syllable  of  complaint  or 

a  moan  amid   the   wilderness,  and  to 

hear  him  lead  his  little  flock  to  show 

forth    God's    loving -kindness    in    the 

morning    and    His   faithfulness    every 

night,   is  worth  going  a  long  journey 

for  the  moral  courage  and  contentment 

From  his  Biogropliy,  by  his        one  derives  from  it. 

Sister  (Armstrong). 


A.  M.  Mackay. 


The  secret  of  Mackay's  courage  is  given  by  his  colleague 
Ashe  in  those  words  :  "  Very  humble,  very  weak,  very  child- 
like was  he  on  his  knees  before  __ 
God;  very  bold,  very  strong,  very 
manly  afterwards,  when  he  bore 
for  three  hours  the  brow-beating 
and  bullying  of  Mwanga  and  his 
chiefs." 

Those  testimonies  to  Mackay 
give  an  insight  into  the  trials  of 
the  mission.  The  caprice  of 
M'tesa  and  the  hostility  of  the 
Arab  traders  were  bad  enough,  but 


nothing  to  the  state  of  affairs  after 


Bishop  Hanninuton. 
From  his  Lifv,  by  E.  C.  Uawsoii 


the  accession    of   the  vacillating 

and  tyrannical  Mwanga.  The  first  Bishop,  Hannington, 
was  murdered  by  his  orders  in  1885,  but  before  he  died 
he  sent  the  message  to  Mwanga  that  he  was  about  to  die 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  195 

for  tlie  Baganda,  and  that  he  had  purchased  tlie  road  to 
Uganda  with  his  life.      1886  was  the  year  of  the  great 
persecution.       "The  demeanour  of  the  converts,"  writes 
Miss  Stock  in  her  story  of  the  mission,  "made  a  great 
impression  on   the  head  executioner.     He  came  and  re- 
ported to  the   King  that  he  had  never  killed  men  who 
showed  such  fortitude  and  endurance,  and  that  they  had 
prayed  aloud  to  God  in  the  fire."     But,  wrote  Mackay, 
"  So  it  is,  and  will  ever  be — some  will  press  into  the  king- 
dom in  times  of  greatest  trial."     The  situation  was  com- 
plicated by  the  arrival  of  Jesuit  missionaries.     Mwanga 
was  driven  from  the  throne  in   1889,  and  during  the  sub- 
sequent Arab  ascendency  the  missionaries  were  compelled 
to  leave.     Mwanga  himself  then  became  Christian,  and 
was  reinstated  with  the  help  of  the  Christians.     With  his 
characteristic  weakness  he  wavered  between  the  Protestant 
and  Roman  Catholic  communions.     Mackay  died  in  1890, 
but  not  before  he  could  say,  after  reviewing  the  remark- 
able succession  of  events  of  the  preceding  six  years,  that 
"the  greatest  and  till  recently  the  most  tyrannical  power 
in  all  East  Africa  is  now  in  the  hands  of  men  who  rejoice 
in  the  name  of  Christian."     That  same  year  the  British 
East  Africa  Company  signed  a  treaty  with  Mwanga,  and 
when  two  years  later  the  Company  threatened  to  with- 
draw on  account  of  the  cost,  it  was  largely  the  action  of 
the  friends  of  the  mission  in  raising  a  large  sum  of  money 
which  prevented  that  calamity,  and  led  in  1894  to  the 
British  Protectorate. 

The  mission  work  of  Uganda  and  j\Iengo  has  made 
marvellous  progress.  In  1896  there  were  12,888  native 
Christians  and  catechumens  (showing  an  increase  of 
4414  for  the  year),  and  2653  of  them  were  communicants. 
There  were  671  native  Christian  teachers  working  in  con- 
nection with  eleven  main  centres.  The  greatest  enthusi- 
asm is   shown   for  the  possession  of  the  Bible,  which  is 


196 


MISSIONARY  EXrANSION 


now  complete  in  the  Laganda  language,  and  it  is  esti- 
mated that  120,000  people  are  learning  to  read  and  write. 
The  native  Church  is  being  rapidly  developed,  and  is 
sending  missionaries  of  its  own  into  the  needier  regions 
beyond.  The  country  has  been  opened  up  to  an  extra- 
ordinary extent,  and  ]\Iackay's  dream  of  a  railway  to  the 
coast  will  soon  be  realised.  The  unstable  Mwanga  at- 
tempted a  revolution  in  1897,  and  he  has  been  replaced 
by  his  infant  son.  The  contrast  between  to-day  and 
twenty  years  ago  shows  how 
rapidly  events  have  been  moving 
of  late  in  the  interior  of  the  Dark 
Continent. 

Hardly  less  rapid  has  been 
the  movement  of  events  from  the 
western  approach  by  the  river 
Congo  or  Livingstone,  the  world's 
second  greatest  waterway,  whose 
alternative  name  was  given  by 
Stanley  in  acknowledgment  of 
Livingstone's  explorations  at  its 
sources.  It  was  Stanley's 
Through  the  Dark  Continent 
which  led  to  the  great  missionary 
impulse  of  the  last  few  years,  and  to  the  founding  in  1884  of 
the  Congo  Free  State  with  a  population  of  40  to  50  millions. 
In  Stanley's  wanderings  of  7000  miles  he  "  did  not  meet 
one  single  Christian  nor  any  one  who  had  ever  heard  the 
Gospel."  The  door  which  he  had  opened  was  immediately 
entered  by  the  Churches.  Chief  among  them  have  been 
the  Baptists  of  England  and  America.  Grenfell  and 
Comber,  the  notable  pioneers  of  the  English  Baptists,  who 
had  been  previously  working  in  the  Cameroons,  were  the 
first  to  reach  the  Congo  in  1876.  They  established 
stations  up  the   river  as  far  as  Stanley  Pool  (since  con- 


Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley. 
Photo  by  Walery,  Ltd. 


THE  DARK  CONTINENT  197 

tinued  to  Stanley  Falls).  The  story  of  the  sufferings  and 
deaths  of  the  missionaries  forms  a  painful  yet  glorious  page 
of  history.  Comber  died  in  1884,  in  his  thirty-fourth  year, 
hopeful  of  the  future.  "  The  Congo  Mission  was  never  so 
full  of  promise  as  to-day,"  he  wrote.  "  No  one  can  study 
its  brief  history  without  seeing  most  clearly  the  over-ruling 
hand  of  God."  His  personal  attendant  was  the  first  convert 
in  1886.  His  brother,  his  wife,  his  brother's  wife,  and 
his  sister  all  laid  down  their  lives  for  Congo-land,  thus 
bearing  out  his  own  words  spoken  before  he  went  to 
the  Congo,  "  There  are  graves  of  saints  in  Africa ;  more 
such  may  be  found  yet."  A  like  story  of  heroic  suffering 
and  seeming  disaster  attaches  to  the  early  work  of  the 
Livingstone  Inland  Mission  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grattan 
Guinness  (1878),  subsequently  handed  over  to  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union.  James  Telford  was  the  first 
of  the  workers  to  fall.  He  had  said  at  his  farewell  meet- 
ing, "  I  go  gladly  on  this  mission,  and  shall  rejoice  if  I 
may  but  give  my  body  as  one  of  the  stones  to  pave  the 
road  into  interior  Africa,  and  my  blood  to  cement  the 
stones  together,  so  that  others  may  pass  into  Congo-land." 
His  successors — many  of  them  since  fallen  in  the  fight 
— have  rejoiced  in  numerous  sons  of  Congo-land  brought 
to  Christ  since  the  first  church  was  instituted  in  1886. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Guinness  have  started  a  second  mission,  the 
Congo  Balolo,  in  connection  with  their  East  London  In- 
stitute, and  numerous  other  agencies  are  at  work.  The 
country  is  being  opened  up.  Cannibalism,  the  slave 
trade,  and  other  evils  are  being  successfully  fought.  The 
language  has  been  reduced  to  writing  by  Mr.  Hoi  man 
Bentley.  Four  large  mission  steamers  ply  on  the 
Upper  Congo,  and  a  railway  is  being  made  to  Stanley 
Pool  in  the  region  of  the  obstructive  cataracts.  In 
all,  over  200  European  and  American  missionaries  are 
engaged,  there  have  been  some  remarkable  spiritual  move- 


198 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


ments  among  the  people,  and   the   outlook   is   decidedly 
hopeful. 

The  great  expenditure  of  life  on  the  Congo  has  been 
often  criticised.  An  answer  has  been  given  in  the  state- 
ment that  Christ  did  not  tell  His  disciples  "  Go  ye  to  the 
healthy  places  of  the  world."  The  experience  so  dearly 
bought  has  proved  helpful  to  later  workers,  and  it  has 
been  an  inspiration  to  the  whole  Church  of  Christ  to  find 
so  many  men  and  women  of  a  like  mind  with  the  young 
missionary  who,  after  comparing  the  present  work  in 
Africa  to  the  laying  of  the  unseen  stones  in  the  foundation 
of  a  great  bridge,  said,  "  If  Christ  wants  me  to  be  one  of 
the  unseen  stones,  lying  in  an  African  grave,  I  am  con- 
tent, certain  as  I  am  that  the  final  result  will  be  a 
Christian  Africa."  The  mission  to  the  Dark  Continent, 
it  has  been  well  remarked,  is  an  example  of  that  principle 
of  vicarious  suffering  that  governs  the  world. 


F.  J.  Comber. 
A  Few  of  the  many  Missionaries  who  have  fallen  on  the  Congo. 
From  Th&  Congo  for  Christ,  by  Myers  (Kevell). 


J 


mmmimi 


=^' 


jflfy 


The  KXaba  at  Mecca. 
From  Sievers's  Asien. 


CHAPTER   X 


Islam 

The  rapid  spread  of  Tslain,  the  faith  of  :N[ohammed, 
over  a  large  part  of  the  Christian  and  non-Christian  world 
was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  movements  of  history."^ 
The  map  of  the  prevailing  religions  (p.  235)  shows  the 
Mohammedan  band  to  stretch  from  China  to  the  westmost 
limit  of  Africa,— 175,000,000  people,  or  nearly  one-eighth 
of  the  human  race,  being  bound  together  by  the  creed 
whose  essence  is  summed  ui»  in  the  short  sentence  :  "  There 
is  no  God  but  God,  and  :\rohammed  is  His  prophet."  This 
creed,  said  Gibbon,  asserts  "an  eternal  truth  and  an 
eternal  lie."  It  was  the  emphasis  laid  upon  the  great 
truth  of  the  unity  of  God  that  made  :Mohammedanism 
prevail  over  the  degenerate  and  idolatrous  churches  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  that  gives  it  vitality  and  power  at  the 
present  day.  Of  the  religion  of  Islam  Dr.  Jessup  ^ 
says  :  "  In  the  apprehension  of  the  Christian  faith  it  must 
be  regarded  as  a  step  in  advance  of  all  pagan  systems,  and 
yet  falling  short  of  the  morality  and  spirituality  of  the 
Gospel,  and  destitute  of  any  provision  for  human  redemp- 
tion."    Sir  William   Muir  points  out  three  radical  evils 

^  See  p.  7.  "  The  Muhainmedan  Missionary  Prublem. 


200  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

which  must  continue  to  exist  so  long  as  the  Koran  is 
the  standard  of  belief.  These  are:  "First, — polygamy, 
divorce,  and  slavery  are  maintained  and  perpetuated. 
.  .  .  Second, — freedom  of  thought  and  private  judgment 
in  religion  are  crushed  and  annihilated.  .  .  .  Third, — a 
barrier  has  been  interposed  against  the  reception  of 
Christianity."  "They  labour,"  adds  Sir  William,  "under 
a  miserable  delusion  who  suppose  that  jSlohammedanism 
paves  the  w^ay  for  a  purer  faith.  .  .  .  The  sword  of 
Mohammed  and  the  Koran  are  the  most  stubborn  enemies 
of  civilization,  liberty,  and  truth  that  the  world  has  yet 
known." 

Akabia  is  the  sacred  land  to  Moslems.  He  is  an  un- 
faithful follower  of  the  prophet  who,  having  the  means, 
neglects  to  go  on  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  the  birthplace  of 
Mohammed  (570  a.d.).  There  his  forefathers,  of  the 
Koreish  tribe,  were  guardians  of  the  Kaaba,  "an  ancient 
temple  of  rude  construction,"  w^hich,  under  a  different 
ritual,  has  been  transformed  into  the  Mohammedan  holy 
of  holies.  No  Christian  is  knowingly  allowed  to  enter  its 
sacred  precincts,  and  Arabia,  M'ith  a  population  of  eight  to 
ten  millions,  "is  to  the  human  eye  sealed  against  the 
benign  influence  of  the  Gospel."  A  beginning  has,  how- 
ever, been  made.  The  Hon.  Ion  Keith -Falconer,  formerly 
Arabic  Professor  at  Cambridge,  consecrated  his  brilliant 
gifts  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  Arabia,  He  died  in  1888, 
after  two  years'  work  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Aden,  but 
the  mission  which  he  founded  in  connection  with  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  is  being  vigorously  prosecuted.  The 
south-east  of  Arabia  has  also  been  hallowed  by  the  grave  of 
a  missionary,  the  saintly  Thomas  Valj^y  French,  who,  after 
he  had  resigned  the  Bishopric  of  Lahore,  gave  the  last 
few  months  of  his  life  to  witness  for  his  Master  in  Muscat. 
The  Arabian  Mission  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  of 
America  (1889)  works  upon  the  east  coast  from  the  two 


ISLAM 


201 


centres  of  Busrah  and  the  Bahrein  Islands.  The  mis.sion- 
aries  have  few  opportunities  of  public  preaching,  but  they 
are  widely  circulating  the  Bible  and  breaking  down  pre- 
judice and  opposition  through  medical  assistance. 

The  Sultan  of  Turkey,  as  the  Caliph  or  successor  of 
Mohammed,!  is  the  prophet,  priest,  and  king  of  the  Moham- 
medan world,  the  Defender  of  the  Faith,  who  is  girded 
with  the  sword  of  the  prophet,  the  shadow  of  God  upon 
earth.  This  complete  union  in 
his  person  between  the  temporal 
and  spiritual  power  in  Turkey 
forms  one  of  the  greatest  barriers 
to  the  progress  of  the  Gospel. 
The  Mohammedan  who  abandons 
his  faith  is  guilty  of  treason 
against  the  State,  and,  notwith- 
standing many  promises  of  re- 
ligious toleration  extorted  by 
European  nations,  it  is  still 
almost  as  much  as  a  Moham- 
medan's life  is  worth  to  become  a 
Christian  in  Turkey.  Although 
the  Mohammedan  religion,  as  Pro- 
fessor Freeman  points  out,  "  does 

not  command  that  Christians  shall  be  persecuted,  it  does 
command  that  they  shall  be  treated  as  subjects  to  Moham- 
medans," and  the  frequent  cold-blooded  massacres  of 
Christian  peoples  by  the  Turks  have  shocked  the  civilised 
world.  So  long  as  the  political  power  of  the  Turk  lasts, 
there  can  be  no  real  freedom  to  preach  the  Gospel  within 
his  domains.  In  consequence,  direct  mission  work  in  the 
Turkish  Empire  has  been  almost  entirely  confined  to  the 


Ahuul-Hamid  Kuan,  thk 
yuLTAN  OF  Turkey. 
Fi-oiii  The  Armeniayi  Crisis,  by 
Greene  (Putnam). 


F.   D. 


^  The  Persians  and  Moors  reject  this  claim,  which  is  founded  on  the 
cession  of  the  rights  of  the  Caliphate  by  the  descendant  of  the  Koreish 
family  to  the  Turkish  Sultan,  Selim  I.,  in  1517. 


202  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

reviving  of  the  degenerate  oriental  churches,  ^  whose 
existence  had  been  a  stumbling-block  rather  than  a  help 
in  the  conflict  with  Mohammedanism.  Missionaries 
expect  those  churches,  when  they  are  "  reformed,  renewed, 
refilled  with  life  divine,"  to  be  the  great  power  for 
winning  the  Moslem  population.  The  American  Board 
and  the  American  Presbyterians  have  given  a  splendid 
lead  in  this  work.  Fisk  and  Parsons  were  in  1818 
the  pioneers  of  a  large  band  who,  in  face  of  the  intoler- 
ance of  the  Turks  and  the  suspicion  and  bigotry  of 
the  ecclesiastics  of  the  Eastern  churches,  have  carried  on  a 
notable  crusade.  The  policy  of  reforming  the  oriental 
churches  wholly  from  within  was  subsequently  found  to 
be  impracticable,  owing  to  their  attitude  of  opposition  and 
persecution,  and  this  led  to  the  formation  of  independent 
Protestant  communities,  the  first  being  organised  at  Con 
stantinople  in  1846.  Those  communities,  writes  Mrs 
Bishop,  are  "tending  to  force  reform  upon  an  ancient 
church  which  contains  within  herself  the  elements  of 
resurrection."  The  American  Societies  have  now  155 
organised  churches,  with  13,528  communicants  and  60,000 
adherents,  and  the  staff  of  workers  includes  223  American 
missionaries  and  1094  native  pastors,  preachers,  and 
teachers.  Their  magnificent  educational  work  at  Con- 
stantinople, Beirut,  and  elsewhere  embraces  5  well- 
equipped  colleges,  6  theological  seminaries,  and  610 
schools,  with  a  total  of  27,400  students.^  The  Arabic 
translation  of  the  Bible — the  work  of  their  missionaries  Dr. 
Eli  Smith  and  Dr.  Van  Dyck — is  one  of  the  most  efficient 
missionary  agents,  and  for  the  circulation  of  it  and  many 
other  versions  used  in  the  Turkish  Empire  the  Bible 
Societies  (British  and  American)  have  large  agencies.     The 

^  These  churches  in  Turkey  include  the  Greek,  the  allied  Bulgarian 
(3,000,000),  the  Armenian  (2,000,000),  Syrian  or  Jacobite  (70,000). 
and  the  Maronite  (250,000). 

2  The  Armenian  Crisis,  by  F.  D.  Greene. 


ISLAM 


203 


Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America  has  sought  to  do 
a  similar  work  in  Bulgaria  since  1857,  and  the  American 
Heformed  Presbyterians  in  Northern  >Syria.  One  of  the 
great  formative  influences  for  the  quickening  and  liberat- 
ing of  Bulgaria  has  been  the  Robert  College  on  the 
Bosphorus,  which  is  the  outcome  of  American  missions. 

Palestine  and  missions  to  the  Jews  in  the  Empire  were 
discussed  in  Chapter  HI.     To  reach  the  Moslems  of  the 
Holy   Land   and    to    break   down    intolerant    opposition 
much  is  being  done 
through         medical 
missions    and    lad) 
missionaries.        Tlie, 
rule  of  the  Turk  is 
hard    to    endure    in 
any  place,  but  it  is 
doubly  hard  to  think 
of       the       Turkish 
soldiery       guarding 
the    very    sepulchre 
of  our  Lord.     That 
fact  itself  should  call 
forth    the   Crusader 
spirit,  not  by  way  of  revenge  and  political  conquest,  as 
often  of  yore,  but  in  loving  effort  to  win  them  all  for  Jesus. 

In  Egypt  Mohammedan  intolerance  is  tempered  by 
British  influence,  and  the  missionary  outlook  is  con- 
sequently more  hopeful.  The  American  L^nited  Presby- 
terian Church  is  the  chief  agency  engaged,  and  in  addition 
to  its  efforts  for  the  quickening  of  the  Coptic  Christians  it 
has  had  considerable  success  among  Mohammedans.  The 
Church  Missionary  Society  made  an  early  effort  to  reform 
the  creed  and  practice  of  the  Copts  through  its  missionaries 
Jowett,  Gobat,  and  others,  and  part  of  its  renewed  interest 
in  later  years  was  shown  in  the  encouragement  given  to 


AT  Jerusalem. 
From  Sievers's  Asien. 


204 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSIOIT 


the  late  Miss  Whateley  with  her  admirable  schools  for 
Mohammedan  boys  and  girls. 

The  20  millions  of  North  Africa  are  almost  all 
Mohammedan.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  until  the  North 
African  Mission  was  organised  in  1881  no  Protestant 
mission  existed  for  the  series  of  settled  states  which  are 
situated  along  the  Mediterranean  from  Egypt  to  Morocco. 
The  mission  had  its  origin  in  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  Pearse's 
interest  in  the  Kabyles  of  Algeria,  but  its  present  operations, 
conducted  by  nearly  a  hundred 
missionaries,  also  embrace 
Morocco,  Tunis,  Tripoli,  and 
Egypt,  with  hopes  of  reaching 
out  to  the  sparsely  j^eopled 
Sahara,  where  there  is  now  no 
worker.  Little  has  been  done  to 
evangelise  the  great  and  populous 
Soudan.  The  brave  pioneer, 
Graham  Wilmot  Brooke,  made 
several  unsuccessful  attempts, 
and  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Robinson  and 
he  laid  down  their  lives  in  leading 
a  forward  movement  from  the 
river  Niger. 
The  first  Protestant  missionary  to  Persia  was  the 
Senior  Wrangler  and  Indian  chaplain,  Henry  Martyn, 
"saint  and  scholar,"  who  in  great  weakness  of  body  went 
thither  in  1811,  and  "in  one  short  year,  spent  at  Shiraz, 
he  began  and  finished  the  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment into  Persian,"  at  the  same  time  boldly  declaring 
Christ  to  the  bigoted  Mullahs.  He  died  shortly  after,  at 
Tokat  in  Asiatic  Turkey,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one.  The 
learned  and  devoted  Dr.  Pfander  worked  for  some  years 
in  Persia  under  the  Basle  Society  (from  1829).  In  1834 
the  American  Board  established  a  mission  to  the  Nestorian 


Henry  Martyn. 
From  his  Biography,  by  George 
Smith,  C.I.B.,  LL.D.cRevell). 


ISLAM  20o 

Christians  of  Ooromiah  in  Persia.  The  mission  (now 
under  the  American  Presbyterian  Church)  has  been 
blessed  to  the  ingathering  of  a  strong  Protestant  com- 
munity, and  there  are  over  fifty  missionaries  at  work^ 
chiefly  among  the  Nestorians  and  the  Armenians.  Dr. 
Bruce  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  entered  Persia 
in  1869.  He  has  revised  Henry  ]Martyn's  New  Testament, 
and  the  work  at  Ispahan  and  Baglidad  gives  much  promise. 
In  1893  a  Mohammedan  convert  of  the  American  Mission, 
Mirza  Ibrahim,  was  the  first  Protestant  martyr  of  Persia, 
his  dying  message  being,  "  All  is  well ;  tell  the  Church  to 
pray  for  me  and  commend  me  to  Jesus.  I  knew  when  I 
became  a  Christian  I  was  putting  a  knife  to  my  throat." 
For  the  rest  of  the  Mohammedans  of  Central  Asia  little 
has  been  done.  The  eighteen  or  twenty  millions  in  China 
are  brought  into  contact  with  many  Gospel  agencies, 
although  as  yet  the  direct  efforts  to  reach  them  seem  few. 
India  presents  a  peculiarly  favourable  field  for  the 
mission  to  the  Mohammedans,  for  there,  under  the  absolute 
religious  toleration  of  the  British  Government,  the  work 
can  be  carried  on  among  sixty  millions,  or  nearly  one-third 
of  the  whole ;  and  influence  gained  in  India  will  have 
results  all  over  the  Moslem  world.  Henry  Martyn's  work 
bore  fruit  in  the  subsequent  baptism,  and  ordination  by 
Bishop  Heber,  of  Abdul  ^lasih,  whom  he  had  employed  to 
copy  his  Persian  New  Testament.  Since  then  there  have 
been  many  distinguished  converts  from  Mohammedanism. 
In  the  course  of  a  significant  paper  read  at  the  "  World's 
Parliament  of  Religions  "  at  Chicago  by  the  Kev.  Maulvi 
Imad-ud-din,  D.D.,  formerly  a  preacher  in  the  Royal  Jama 
Musjidof  Agra,  and  now  an  able  defender  of  the  Christian 
faith  by  tongue  and  pen,  he  gave  short  biographies  of  no 
fewer  than  117  men  of  position  and  influence  who  had 
embraced  Christianity.  From  Peshawur  and  Quetta  efforts 
are  being  made  to  influence  the  turbulent  Mohammedan 


206  MISSIONARY  EXrANSIOlsT 

tribes  on  the  north-western  frontier,  and  it  is  hoped  an 
entrance  may  thus  be  gained  to  Afghanistan.  A  great 
change,  too,  is  coming  over  a  section  of  the  Mohammedans, 
and  a  Neiv  Islam  as  well  as  a  New  Hinduism  is  springing 
up  in  India. 

The  Indian  Archipelago  contains  a  large  Mohammedan 
population.  Of  the  thirty  millions  in  the  Dutch  East 
Indies,  nine-tenths  are  nominally  Moslem,  and  they  tend 
to  increase.  A  great  work  is  being  carried  on  in  Java, 
Sumatra,  and  the  Malayan  Peninsula  by  the  Rhenish  and 
other  missions,  and  it  is  said  that  30,000  Mohammedans 
have  been  won  for  Christ. 

The  evangelisation  of  Mohammedan  lands  is  j^erhaps 
the  greatest  and  most  difficult  problem  for  the  Church  of 
Christ.  Our  rapid  survey  of  the  work  in  this  field  shows 
that  this  is  being  increasingly  realised,  and  although  the 
efforts  hitherto  put  forth  have  been  lamentably  inadequate, 
the  results  are  full  of  hope.  An  improvement  is  steadily 
taking  place  in  the  conditions  for  such  work  through  the 
growing  influence  of  the  Christian  nations  on  the  Moham- 
medan powers,  the  spread  of  education,  and  the  increasing 
witness  of  Protestant  Christianity,  which  is  gradually  un- 
doing the  evil  effects  upon  the  idol-hating  Moslem  of  the 
stagnation  and  corruption  of  the  Oriental  Churches. 


JuMMA  Mosque,  Delhi. 


Otaheite. 
From  Cook's  Voyages. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE    SOUTHERN   TSLES 

The  islands  of  the  south  are  distributed  over  an  immense 
area.  From  the  most  easterly  of  the  Polynesian  group 
to  :\radagascar  there  is  a  stretch  of  fifteen  thousand 
miles,  while  New  Zealand  is  distant  five  thousand  miles 
from 'the  Sandwich  Isles.  The  fifty  millions  of  people  ^ 
inhabiting  this  vast  tract  may  be  roughly  said  to  belong 
to  the  one  great  Malayo-Polynesian  stock  ;  and  geographers 
divide  the  islands  (from  east  to  west)  into  Polynesia, 
Micronesia,  Melanesia  or  Australasia,  Malaysia,  and 
Madagascar  (with  Mauritius^).  We  shall  begin  with  the 
missions  to  the  first  three  divisions,  "  to  that  milky  way  of 
islets  clustered  in  distinct  archipelagos,  and  spanning  the 

1  Keith  Johnston's  estimate  distributes  as  follows  :— Madagascar, 
3^^  millions  •  Malaysia,  40  millions  ;  Melanesia  (including  nearly  4 
ndllion  colonists  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand),  about  7  millions  ; 
Micronesia,  190,000  ;  and  Polynesia,  161,000. 

2  The  population  of  Mauritius  is  chietly  composed  of  Coolie  emi- 
grants from  India. 


208 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSIOX 


southern  Pacific  between  America  and  Asia  like  so  many 
giant  stepi^ing-stones  in  the  sea."  On  these  "gems  of  the 
Pacific,"  girdled  by  their  barrier  reefs,  which  the  tiny 
coral  polyp  has  raised,  nature  has  lavished  many  gifts ; 
and  there,  if  anywhere,  it  has  been  made  clear  that  the 
most  beautiful  surroundings  are  powerless  to  regenerate. 
While  every  prospect  was  found  to  be  pleasing,  the 
inhabitants  were  savages  of  the  most  degraded  type. 
]\Irs.  J.  G.  Paton  in  her  charming 
letters  has  described  their  state  as 
that  delineated  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Romans,  with  cannibalism  added. 
The  story  of  the  South  Sea 
missions  is  so  full  of  adventure 
and  romance  that  to  do  it  justice 
would  require  more  chapters  than 
our  pages  will  admit.  We  can 
only  select  a  few  typical  incidents, 
but  this  is  the  less  to  be  regretted 
as  there  has  been  a  wonderful 
similarity  of  experience  in  the 
various  groups.  The  conditions  on 
many  of  the  islands  are  very  different 
from  those  of  the  great  fields  we 
have  already  described.  The  popula- 
tion of  some  of  them  is  insignificant,  that  of  the  whole  of 
Polynesia,  for  example,  amounting  to  a  sixth  part  of  the 
city  of  Calcutta.  But  in  them  we  have  had  exhibited,  on 
a  small  scale  and  within  our  own  times,  the  issue  of  that 
fight  which  must  be  fought  until  the  whole  earth  shall 
acknowledge  God  in  Christ.  And  the  issue  is  full  of  hope. 
The  first  party  of  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
under  Captain  Wilson  in  the  Duff,  reached  Tahiti,  the 
chief  of  the  Society  Group,  in  1797  (see  p.  90).  The 
majority  left  the  island,   unable  to  endure   the   terrible 


Taaboa  Upoo  Vahu,  the 
Supreme  Deity  of 
Polynesia. 

From  the  L.M.S.  Juvenile 
Missionary  Magazine. 


THE  SOUTHERN  ISLES  209 

suflferings  and  privations  tliey  had  to  face,  and  two  ])roved 
faithless  under  tlie  drag  and  strain  of  tJie  immoral  heathen 
environment.  In  1809  Henry  Nott  (the  former  bricklayer) 
and  another  alone  remained ;  and  the  result  of  the  first 
twelve  years  seemed  to  be  absolute  failure.  But  day- 
break was  at  hand.  The  king,  Pomare,  was  the  first  to 
ask  for  baptism ;  idols  were  thrown  away ;  j^riests  even 
joined  in  burning  them.  The  Sabbath  was  observed,  and 
great  numbers  put  themselves  under  instruction,  many 
doubtless  from  very  mixed  motives.  The  heathen 
party  made  a  last  desperate  stand. 
They  attacked  the  Christians  and  were 
defeated.  The  unexpected  clemency 
of  the  king  so  impressed  them  that 
they  too  joined  the  winning  side. 
Within  a  few  years  Tahiti  might  be 
said  to  be  a  Christian  island,  although 
much  remained  to  be  done  for  the 
instruction  of  the  people  and  the 
deepening  of  their  spiritual  life.  The  ^Captain  Wilson. 
develojjment  of  the  Church  was  sadly 
marred  by  troubles  arising  out  of  French 
aggression  and  Roman  Catholic  proselytising,  and  the 
island  eventually  came  under  the  dominion  of  France.  It 
is,  however,  a  striking  proof  of  the  thorough  Bible  training 
given  by  the  early  missionaries  that  although  the  English 
missionaries  were  ousted,  the  great  majority  of  the  peoj^le 
have  remained  staunch  to  the  Protestant  Church  under 
their  native  pastors  and  the  Paris  Missionary  Society. 
Some  writers  have  tried  to  disparage  the  effect  of  mis- 
sionary work  in  the  South  Seas.  To  such  critics  Charles 
Darwin,  who  visited  Tahiti  and  other  islands,  replied  in 
these  words  : — 

They  forf^et,   or  Avill  not  remember,  tljat  human  sacrifices  and 
the  power  ol  an  idolatrous  priesthood,  a  system  of  profligacy  un- 

14 


From  Tlie  Story  of  the 
L.M.S. 


210  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

paralleled  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  infanticide,  a  consequence 
of  that  system,  bloody  wars,  where  the  conquerors  spared  neither 
women  nor  children, — that  all  these  have  been  abolished,  and  that 
dishonesty,  intemperance,  and  licentiousness  have  been  greatly 
reduced  by  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  In  a  voyager,  to 
forget  these  things  would  be  base  ingi-atitude  ;  for  should  he 
chance  to  be  on  the  point  of  shipwreck  on  some  unknown  coast  he 
will  most  devoutly  pray  that  the  lesson  of  the  missionary  may  have 
extended  thus  far. 

John  Williams,  the  ironmonger's  apprentice  who 
became  one  of  the  greatest  of  missionaries,  was  the 
discoverer  of  Rarotonga,  in  the 
Hervey  Group  (Cook's  Islands), 
and  he  wrote  thus  of  its  in- 
habitants. "  When  I  found  them 
in  1823,  they  were  ignorant  of 
the  nature  of  Christian  worship  ; 
and  when  I  left  them  in  1834,  I 
am  not  aware  that  there  was  a 
house  in  the  island  where  family 
prayer  was  not  observed  every 
Eev.  John  Williajis.         morning     and     evening."      One 

From  The  Story  oftke  L.M.S.       ^^^^  ^^^j^  ^^^^  g-^,^  ^^^^^  Sufficient 

for  Williams's  life-work,  and  it  was  while  in  Rarotonga  that 
he  built,  with  his  ov,m  hands  and  few  tools,  the  Messenger  of 
Peace,  by  means  of  which  he  began  his  voyages  among 
the  islands.  These  he  continued  until  he  fell  a  martyr  in 
far-off  Erromanga  (Xew  Hebrides),  killed  by  cannibals,  who 
only  left  his  bones  and  skull  to  be  buried  by  his  sorrowing 
friends.  kSamoa  was  one  of  the  earliest  islands  upon  which 
the  Messenger  of  Peace  left  native  teachers,  and  from  it 
Williams  set  sail  upon  that  fatal  voyage,  bearing  with  him 
converted  Samoans  as  missionaries.  Even  then,  however, 
he  had  the  joy  of  seeing  in  Samoa  fifty  thousand,  out  of 
its  sixty  thousand  people,  under  Christian  instruction — 
rich  earnest  of  the  present  Christian  kingdom. 


THE  SOUTHERN  ISLES  211 

The  work  of  the  Wesleyain  Church  on  the  Tonga  or 
Friendly  Islands  has  been  equally  fruitful.  There  is  now 
not  one  heathen  remaining.  The  contrast  between  the 
old  and  the  new  was  finely  shown  in  one  of  the  churches, 
where  the  communion  rails  were  made  of  ancestral  war 
sj^ears,  and  two  clubs  formerly  worshipped  as  gods  were 
fixed  at  the  foot  of  the  pulpit  stairs.  In  1834  a  great  re- 
vival took  place  in  the  islands  ;  King  George  became  a  local 
preacher,  and  a  burning  desire  arose  to  send  tho  Gospel  to 
Fiji.  Cross  and  Cargill  led  the  expedition,  and  other 
distinguished  missionaries,  such 
as  Hunt  and  Calvert,  carried  on 
the  mission,  so  that  in  less  than 
forty  years  a  Christian  king 
ruled  over  a  Christian  people. 
When  Fiji  was  ceded  to  Great 
Britain  in  1874  King  Thakom- 
bau  presented  his  club  to  Queen 
Victoria,  and*  with  it  sent  by 
Sir  Hercules  Robinson  this 
message  :  "  The  King  gives  Her 
Majesty  his  old  and  favourite  ^^''-  •^°°''  ^^^• 

war  club,  the  former  and  until  lately  the  only  known 
law  in  Fiji."  The  first  British  Governor,  Sir  A.  Gordon, 
testified :  "  There  has  been  a  work  done  here  whose 
thoroughness  and  large -heartedness  exceeds  all  my 
expectations,"  while  in  her  book,  At  Home  in  Fiji, 
Miss  Gordon  Gumming  draws  two  pictures — of  1835, 
when  Cargill  and  Cross  "resolved  at  the  hazard  of 
their  lives  to  bring  the  light  of  Christianity  to  those 
ferocious  cannibals " ;  and  of  1875,  when  "every  village 
on  the  eighty  inhabited  isles  has  built  for  itself  a  tidy 
church,  and  a  good  house  for  its  teacher  or  native  minister," 
when  there  are  "  well -attended  schools"  and  "nine 
hundred  devout  congregations,"  and  when  "  the  first  sound 


212  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

wbicli  greets  your  ear  at  dawn  and  the  last  at  night  is 
that  of  hymn-singing  and  most  fervent  worship,  rising 
from  each  dwelling  at  the  hour  of  family  prayer."  In  the 
little  island  of  Mbau  is  a  church  whose  baptismal  font  is 
made  out  of  the  stone  altar  against  which  the  human 
victims  offered  for  sacrifice  were  wont  to  be  dashed. 

Results  not  less  remarkable  were  attained  by  the 
American  Board  in  the  Sandwich  or  Hawaiian  Islands, 
the  scene  of  Captain  Cook's  murder,  and  lately  ceded  to 
the  United  States.  Within  four  years  of  the  arrival  of  the 
first  missionaries,  the  bodies  of  the  king  and  queen,  who 
had  died  on  a  visit  to  England,  received  a  Christian  burial. 
The  islands  have  been  the  scene  of  some  wonderful 
revivals.  During  that  of  1837,  under  Titus  Coan,  1705 
persons  were  baptized  on  one  day ;  and  within  six  years 
there  were  27,000  converts.  In  1863  the  American  Board 
was  able  to  hand  over  the  whole  burden  of  the  churches  to 
the  natives  themselves,  and  the  Hawaiian  Evangelical 
Association  has,  in  addition  to  its  home  burdens,  done  nobly 
for  the  evangelisation  of  the  other  groups  of  Micronesia. 

In  Melanesia  the  struggle  between  pagan  darkness  and 
Gospel  light  is  still  going  on.  Some  of  the  New  Hebrides, 
indeed,  have  been  Christianised,  such  as  Aneityum,  whose 
state  in  1841  was  described  by  A.  W.  Murray  as  that  of 
"  war,  murder,  cannibalism,  strangling  of  widows,  murder 
of  orphan  children,  polygamy,  and  the  consequent 
degradation  and  oppression  of  the  female  sex."  Dr. 
Geddie  and  Dr.  Inglis  laboured  long  on  the  island.  The 
memorial  tablet  of  the  former  bears  the  words : — 

When  he  landed  in  1848  there  were  no  Christians  here  ; 
When  he  left  in  1872  there  were  no  Heathens. 

The  story  of  the  conversion  of  the  little  island  of  Aniwa, 
too,  has  added  a  classic  to  missionary  literature  in  the  Auto- 
hiography  of  John  G.  Baton.     Erromanga  has  been  called 


THE  SOUTHERN  ISLES 


213 


John  G.  Paton. 
From  his  Antohiograjiliy 
(Revell). 


the  martyr  island,  for  in  it  the  Canadian  brothers  Gordon 

as  well   as  Williams  gained   the 

martyr's    crown.       Through    the 

efforts   of    a   happy   combination 

of  Scottish,   Canadian,  and  Aus- 
tralian    Presbyterian     Churches, 

the  southern  islands  of  the  group, 

with    the    exception    of    Tanna, 

are  now  Christian.     In  the  New 

Hebrides,    as    elsewhere    in    the 

South  Seas,  the  native  Christians 

have   shown   a    keen    interest   in 

procuring     the    Bible     in     their 

own   native   tongue,  and    for  its 

translation     they     devoted     the 

profits  of  their   arrowroot   crop    for  a  period   of  fifteen 

years  ! 

The  Anglican  Melanesian  Mission  has  worked  in  some 

of    the    northern    isles     of    the    New 

Hebrides    as   well   as    in   the   Banks, 

Santa  Cruz,  and  Solomon  Groups. 

It    was   begun   by   Bishop    Selwyn   of 

New  Zealand,  and  was   for  ten  years 

(1861-71)  under  the  Bishopric  of  the 

%\         '■  ,    brave    and    cultured    Coley    Patteson, 

|JL^fe:\      £,         whose  yearly  cruises  among  the  islands 

U^g^^-^;J  ^    were  closed  by  his  murder  on  Nukapu 

in    the    Santa   Cruz    group,  his  death 

being  almost  certainly  due  to  the  evil 

"^rilt  "l^"t-e  ^^^'^^  °f  ^^'''  f™"  disreputable  white 
traders.  His  companions  learned  of 
the  tragic  end  Avlien  they  found,  drift- 


BlSHOP  J.    COLEKIDGE 

Patteson. 


(Macmillau  and  Co., 
Ltd.). 


ing  from  the   shore,  a  canoe  in  which   the   savages  had 
placed  the  lifeless  body  of  the  Bislioi). 

The  Maoris  of  New  Zealand  are  one  of  the  finest 


214  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

types  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders.  Their  early  apostle 
was  Samuel  Marsden,  chaplain  of  an  Australian  penal 
settlement,  who  in  a  spirit  of  love  and  bravery  trusted 
himself  to  them,  although  he  knew  them  to  be  dreaded 
cannibals.  In  a  very  special  way  Britain  largely  owes  to 
Marsden  those  prized  islands ;  and  his  friend  and  fellow- 
missionary,  the  Wesleyan  Samuel  Leigh,  shares  the  credit 
along  with  him.  Success  attended  the  missionaries,  but, 
after  New  Zealand  became  a  British  colony  in  1840,  land 
complications  and  consequent  wars  embittered  the  natives. 
Then  followed  serious  defections  and  the  spread  of  a 
__,  spurious  Christianity,  in  some  ways  not 

unlike  that  of  the  Chinese  Taiping,  Of 
late  years  there  has  been  a  steady  re- 
\^'V  rival,  and  at  least  three -fourths  of  the 
]\raori  race,  numbering  a  little  over 
40,000,  are  associated  with  the  Epis- 
copal and  other  churches.  But  they 
have  been  dwindling  away,  like  the 
small   remnant   of    the   degraded    abor- 

Rev,  Samuel  Marsden.  n  i 

igmes  of  Australia,  for  whom  the 
Moravian  Hagenauer,  among  many  others,  has  nobly 
laboured.  In  the  Sandwich  Islands  the  population  of 
140,000  found  by  the  first  missionaries  now  hardly  exceeds 
40,000.  This  gradual  disappearance  of  the  natives  is  a 
sad  feature  of  almost  all  the  work  in  the  South  Seas,  and 
many  people  believe  that  their  extinction  is  but  a  matter 
of  time,  as  they  cannot  withstand  the  conditions,  especially 
the  evils,  attendant  on  the  white  man's  civilisation.  Others 
take  a  more  hopeful  view  of  their  future ;  but  even  grant- 
ing they  are  dying  out,  that  fact  should  give  urgency  to 
the  duty  of  leading  them  into  the  fold  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd while  yet  the  privilege  remains. 

To  New  Guinea,  the  world's  largest  island,  the  Gospel 
was   carried    as   late   as  the  year    1870  by  the  London 


h 


THE  SOUTHERN  ISLES 


215 


Rev.  James  Chalmers. 
From  the  L.M.S.  Chronicle. 


Missionary  Society.  The  greatest  part  of  the  work  has 
been  accomplished  by  devoted,  though  unknown,  native 
apostles,  whose  evangelistic  zeal  has  been  a  distinguishing 
mark  of  the  South  Sea  missions. 
Chalmers — himself  the  most 
noted  of  the  New  Guinea  mission- 
aries— calls  them  "the  true  heroes 
and  martyrs  of  the  nineteenth 
century."  Their  zeal,  writes  Miss 
Gordon  Gumming,  is  something 
more  than  the  zeal  of  the  early 
saints,  for  they  have  gone  to 
cannibal  islands.  With  what 
sj^irit  many  of  them  have  wit- 
nessed was  notably  exemplified 
by  the  brave  Papeiha,  who  under  Williams  did  many  deeds 
of  heroism.  When,  for  example,  it  seemed  next  to  im- 
possible to  attack  Rarotonga,  Papeiha  leapt  into  the  sea, 
crying,  "  Whether  the  savages  spare 
me  or  kill  me,  I  will  land  among  them  ; 
Jehovah  is  my  shield ;  I  am  in  His 
hand." 

From  Lifu,  one  of  the  Loyalty 
Group,  the  Gospel  first  went  to  New 
Guinea.  Thirty  years  before,  it  had 
been  itself  "a  perfect  hell  of  cruel 
tyranny,  idolatry,  and  cannibalism," 
until  Pao,  a  llarotongan,  with  his 
New  Testament  fastened  to  his  head, 
swam  ashore,  and,  providentially 
escaping  the  spear  of  a  savage  raised  to  strike  him,  began 
the  marvellous  movement.  When  Macfarlane  and  Murray 
called  for  volunteers  in  Lifu  to  go  to  New  Guinea,  every 
student  in  the  Institution  and  every  teacher  on  the  island 
offered  their  services  for  the  hazardous  enterprise.    Darnley 


PaI'KIHA,   thk   bkavk 

Rarot()N(;an. 

From  The  Story  of  the  L.M.S 


216 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


Island,  off  the  coast,  was  first  occupied.  An  advance  on 
Murray  Island  being  meditated,  a  native  sought  to  deter 
one  of  the  teachers  by  saying,  "There  are  alligators  on 
Murray  Island  and  snakes  and  centii3edes."  "Hold,"  said 
Tapeso,  "are  there  onen  there?"  "Oh  yes,  there  are  men 
of  course,  but  they  are  such  dreadful  savages  that  there  is 
no  use  your  thinking  of  living  among  them."  "  That  will 
do,"  replied  Tapeso,  "  wherever  there  are  men,  iiiissionaries 
are  hound  to  goJ^  In  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  New 
Guinea  Mission,  120  native  teachers  died  of  fever  or  were 


RUATOKA   AND'HIS   WiFE,    RaROTONOAN    TeaCHERS 

AT  Port  Moresby,  New  Guinea. 
From  The  Story  of  the  L.M.S. 

poisoned  and  massacred,  yet  the  ranks  were  never  unfilled. 
Sir  William  Macgregor,  Administrator  of  British  New 
Guinea,  speaking  of  the  brave  native  teacher,  said  he 
"  leayes  at  our  call  his  own  little  world  and  warm-hearted 
friends  in  the  South  Seas  to  devote  his  efi"orts  to  his  fellow- 
men  in  our  unknown  country.  .  .  .  Scores  of  them  have 
died  splendidly  and  silently  at  their  post.  .  .  .  Had  they 
belonged  to  our  race  we  should  have  known  much  more 
about  their  career,  their  suffering,  and  their  martyrdom." 
Nor  are  the  women  behind  the  men.  Dr.  W.  W.  Gill  of 
Karotonija  tells  that  when  two  of  the  New  Guinea  teachers 


THE  SOUTHERN  ISLES  217 

were  prostrate  with  fever,  their  wives  conducted  the  Sunday 
and  week-day  services,  preaching  most  appropriately,  and 
those  wives  were  equally  noted  as  good  housewives,  scrupu- 
lously clean  and  neat — an  eloquent  testimony  of  what  the 
Gospel  has  done  for  the  women  of  the  South  Seas !  A 
few  years  ago  the  Propagation  Society  and  the  Australian 
Wesleyans  undertook  a  share  in  the  evangelising  of  British 
New  Guinea,  and  Continental  Societies  are  working  in  the 
part  belonging  to  Holland.  The  Wesleyans  had  already 
evangelised  New  Britain,  New  Ireland,  and  the  Duke  of 
York's  Group  on  the  coast  of  New  Guinea.  Making  Dobu 
their  central  station  in  British  New  Guinea,  with  sixty 
native  missionaries  from  Fiji,  Tonga,  and  Samoa,  they  have 
met  with  great  success,  the  Papuan  savages  having  now 
become  devout  Christians. 

We  have  seen  (p.  37)  that  there  were  great  numbers  of 
nominal  Christians  in  the  Malayan  Archipelago  ^  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  most  of  whom 
reverted  to  heathenism,  or  were  absorbed  by  the  predominant 
Mohammedanism.  During  the  nineteenth  century  renewed 
efforts  have  been  made.  Kam  (1812-33)  was  a  dis- 
tinguished missionary  of  the  Netherlands  Society  who 
did  a  great  work  in  Amboyna,  which  is  now  practically 
a  Christian  island.  The  same  Society  has  had  but 
moderate  success  in  densely  peopled  Java,  while  in 
Celebes  the  mission  has  been  most  fruitful,  particularly  in 
the  Minehassa  or  north-east  portion,  of  which  the  main 
body  of  the  people  are  now  Christian.  The  Khenish 
Society  has  its  most  important  work  among  the  Battas  of 
Sumatra.  Its  first  efforts  to  reach  the  head-hunting  Dyaks 
of  Borneo  had  a  tragic  end  in  the  murder  of  seven  of  its 
agents  during  a  bloody  uprising  against  the  Dutch  in  1859. 
Its  later  efforts,  however,  give  much  promise.  The  work 
of  the  Propagation  Society  (S.P.G.)  among  the  Dyaks  of 

^  See  also  chapter  ou  Islam,  p.  206. 


218  MISSIONARY  EXPAXSION 

Xorth  Borneo  has  been  heroically  carried  on  under  the 
auspices  of  that  remarkable  Englishman,  Brooke,  who  as 
Rajah  of  Sarawak  did  so  much  to  exterminate  slave- 
hunting  and  piracy.  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been 
done,  there  still  remains  a  wide  field  to  be  covered  in  the 
Dutch  East  Indies,  Avhere  in  1890  there  were  but  277,410 
Christians  out  of  a  population  of  over  30,000,000. 

Madagascar,  the  great  island   off  the  coast  of  East 
Africa,   four  times  as  large  as  England  and  Wales,  has 
been  the  scene  of  some  of  the  most  glorious  concj[uests  of 
the  Cross  in  the  nineteenth  century.      Messrs.  Jones  and 
Bevan  of  the  London  Society,   with 
their  wives  and  two  children,  settled 
on  the  coast  in  1818,  but  before  a 
few  weeks  were  over  fever  had  carried 
off    the    whole    party    save    Jones. 
Otherwise,  the  mission  had  an  aus- 
picious start  under  the  enlightened 
king,  Ptadama  I.,  who,  at  the  instiga- 
Radama  I.,  King  of        tion  of  Britain,  had  just  abolished  the 
Madagascar.  slave  trade  for  which  Madagascar  was 

From  The  Story  oftke  L.M.S.    ^^^^^-^^^^       ^^  ^-^  ^^^^^^  -^^  jgOg  the 

ambitious  and  unscrupulous  Ranavalona,  one  of  his  twelve 
widows,  ascended  the  throne  after  a  series  of  foul  murders. 
Three  years  later  the  first  Malagasy  were  baptized.  The 
numbers  grew  so  rapidly  that  the  Queen  became  alarmed,  and 
determined  to  stamp  out  the  new  faith  by  a  master-stroke. 
On  Sunday,  1st  March  1838,  a  liahary  or  great  assembly 
of  all  the  i)eople  was  held,  and  a  force  of  15,000  soldiers 
was  marshalled  on  the  plain.  The  order  was  then  given 
that  all  who  had  become  Christians  should  confess  the 
fact  to  the  Government  within  a  specified  time.  Many 
yielded.  Others  proved  as  faithful  as  the  noblest  on  the 
martyr  roll.  Those  who  confessed  had  to  suffer  indignity  and 
humiliation,  and  they  were  warned  that  any  repetition  of  the 


THE  SOUTHERN  ISLES 


21< 


ofFence  would  be  visited  with  death.  A  compulsory  prayer 
to  the  idols  was  prescribed,  and  all  Christian  books  were 
to  be  given  up.  The  European  missionaries  left  the  island, 
and  then  the  full  storm  burst  upon  the  infant  Church, 
whose  deeds  during  the  dark  days  of  persecution  furnish 
many  inspiring  pages  to  the  history  of  the  Church.  For- 
tunately the 
Christians  had 
the  Bible  in  their 
own  tongue.  The 
few  copies  left  to 
them  were  pre- 
cious indeed,  and 
men  were  known 
to  walk  a  hundred 
miles  to  get  a  copy 
of  the  proscribed 
book. 

Easalama,  a  M 
woman,  was  the 
first  of  the  mar- 
tyrs. "  After 
cruel  beatings, 
and  even  more 
cruel  tortures 
from  being  bound  in  irons  in  excruciating  positions,  she  was 
led  out  to  die.  Then  all  her  inward  peace  and  joy  found 
expression.  Singing  and  testifying,  she  passed  on  her  way 
to  the  place  of  blood,  and,  calmly  kneeling,  she  committed 
her  soul  to  the  care  of  the  Eternal.  She  was  speared  to 
death,  her  body  being  left  to  be  devoured  by  the  wild 
dogs."  The  Christians  suffered  cruelly.  They  were  hunted 
from  place  to  place,  and  met  in  caves  and  holes  of  the 
earth  to  read  and  pray.  And  yet  the  "killing  time" 
proved    to  be  a  season  of  growth  to  the  Church,  as  the 


An  Old  .Malaga-,v  L'.ii;i,k. 
From  the  Bible  Society's  Monthly  Reporter. 


220  MISSIONARY"  EXPANSION 

Queen  herself  admitted  at  another  great  Icahary  in  1849  : — 
"  I  have  killed  some  ;  I  have  made  some  slaves  till  death  ; 
I  have  put  some  in  long  and  heavy  fetters ;  and  still  you 
continue  praying.  How  is  it  that  you  cannot  give  up 
that  ? "  The  greater  readiness  now  to  confess  their  faith 
might  have  shown  her  the  folly  of  continuing  her  policy 
of  repression.  Again  two  to  three  thousand  disciples  were 
sentenced  to  varying  degrees  of  punishment ;  of  eighteen 
ordered  to  die,  four  were  burned.  "Amid  the  fire  they 
were  heard  to  cry,  *  Lord  Jesus,  receive  our  spirits.  Lay 
not  this  sin  to  their  charge.'  The  ferocity  of  the  execu- 
tioners stood  out  in  dark  contrast. 
In  the  hour  of  mortal  anguish  the 
woman  sufferer  became  a  mother ; 
the  babe  was  thrust  back  into  the 
flames."  An  eye-witness  has  re- 
corded that  "they  prayed  as  long  as 
they  had  any  life.  Then  they  died  ; 
but  softly,  gently."  The  remaining 
fourteen  were  taken  to  the  edge  of  a 
Rev.  w.  Ellis.  great    precipice,    and    as    they,    one 

Tvom  The  story  of  the  L.M.S.       -^  ^,  .  ,     ^,  rr        ^ 

alter  another,  refused  the  orier  to 
recant,  were  hurled  to  certain  destruction  below.  Their 
mangled  remains  were  then  burned  together  on  the  spot 
where  their  fellow-martyrs  had  just  suffered.  During  a 
third  great  jDersecution  in  1857  stoning  was  the  method 
used  to  kill  the  Christians.  Between  the  second  and  third 
persecutions  the  Rev.  William  Ellis,  formerly  of  the  South 
Seas,  twice  visited  Madagascar,  and  succeeded  in  smuggling 
in  many  Bibles  and  other  books ;  but  it  was  not  till  death 
removed  Eanavalona  in  18G1  that  missionaries  were  able 
to  enter  the  capital.  They  had  the  great  joy  of  finding 
that  the  Christians  in  Antananarivo  and  its  suburbs,  who 
had  numbered  less  than  2000  when  the  missionaries 
were  forced  to  flee  the  country,  had  increased  to  7000  ! 


THE  SOUTHERN  ISLES  221 

A  second  llanavalona  became  queen  in   1868.       What  a 
change   is    indicated   in   the   account   of   her   coronation 
ceremony  :— "  In  front  of  Queen  Ranavalona,  as  she  took 
her  seat,  were  two  tables ;  that  on  the  one  hand  bearing 
the   crown   of    Madagascar,  that  on  the  other  hand  the 
Bible  which  had  been  sent  to  her  predecessor  by  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society.     She  had  resolved  to  wear  her 
crown  in  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  the  Bible."    The 
Queen  and  Prime  Minister  were  baptized  and  the  idols 
destroyed.     The  royal  example  was  widely  followed,  and 
adherents  of  the  Churches  rose  from  37,000  in  1869  to 
a  quarter  of  a  million  in  1870.     The  teaching  of   these 
people  was  a  herculean  task  for  the  missionaries.      The 
Friends  Foreign  Missionary  Association  gave  much  help, 
notably    with    the    educational   work.       The   Norwegian 
Missionary  Society  took  up  a  distinct  district,  as  also  did 
the  Church  Missionary  Society  until  it  withdrew  as  a  pro- 
test against  the  action  of  the  Propagation  Society  in  enter- 
ing   upon    the  work  without    any    reference    to    mission 
comity.     The  central  province  of  Imerina  may  be  said  to 
be  Christian,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  island  has  still 
to  be  evangelised,  and  the  missionaries  report  that  in  some 
of  the  churches,  especially  in  the  outlying  districts,   the 
faith  and  practice  of  the  people  leave  much  to  be  desired. 
A  distressing  and  even  tragical  element  has  been  intro- 
duced by  the  aggression  of  the  French,  who  have  taken 
possession    of    Madagascar.      Through   their   high-handed 
actions  and  petty  policy— largely  instigated  by  the  Jesuits 
—it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  London  Missionary  Society 
may  be  driven  from  the  island  in  which  its  labours  have 
been  so  signally  successful,  just  as  it  was  driven  in  the 
past  from  Tahiti  and  the  Loyalty  Group.     In  the  mean- 
time some  of  its  people  are  suffering  from  persecutions 
scarcely  less  hard  to  bear  than  those  inflicted  by  the  wicked 
llanavalona.     The  Evangelical  Missionary  Society  of  Paris 


222 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


has  entered  the  field,  and  it  may  be  that  the  great  responsi- 
bility now  being  thrown  upon  the  Protestants  of  France 
will  be  the  means  of  multiplying,  strengthening,  and 
blessing  them. 


OST,  OF  THE   FOUR   ^IaLAGASY  MaRTYR  MEMORIAL  CHURCHES. 

From  The  Story  of  the  L.M.S. 


ixr-^^"/- 


^.     j5..         "      1    / 


J  I    ^ 


/     ; 


The  "  Santa    The  ' '  Pinta. 
Maria." 


The  •'  Niua,' 


CouiMBUs's  Three  Ships  and  the  latest  Cunarder, 

THE  "Campania"  (same  scale). 

From  D'Anvers"  Heroes  of  American  Discovery  (Marcus  Ward  and  Co.,  Ltd.). 


CHAPTER   XII 


THE    NEW    AVORLD 

In  the  belief  that  he  had  discovered  the  eastern  shore  of 
India,  Cohimbus  gave  the  name  of  Indians  to  the  abor- 
igines of  the  Americas.  They  are  supposed  to  be  of  Asiatic 
stock,  and  to  have  broken  off  from  the  rest  of  the  human 
race  before  the  dawn  of  history.  Their  condition  varied 
greatly  in  the  different  parts  of  the  continent.  What  is  now 
occupied  by  the  United  States  and  Canada  had  a  sparse  popu- 
lation of  fierce  and  degraded  tribes,  with  no  settled  home, 
and  living  by  the  chase.  To  the  south  of  these,  however, 
were  Indian  kingdoms  with  skilfully  built  cities,  whose  people 
had  made  more  progress  in  some  of  the  arts  than  had  their 
contemporaries  in  the  east.  But,  as  Mackenzie  of  Mexico 
says^  "  notwithstanding  the  industrial  progress  of  this 
remarkable  people,  their   social    condition  was,  in    some 


224 


MISSIONARY  EXrAXSION 


respects,  inexpressibly  debased."^  ]\Iultitudes  of  human 
sacrifices  were  offered  to  their  gods,  and  at  the  banquets  of 
wealthy  Mexicans  one  of  the  delicacies  was  the  flesh  of  a 
slave  slaughtered  for  the  occasion.  The  Caribs  -  of  the 
islands  occupied  a  position  midway  between  the  Indians  of 
the  north  and  south,  being  gentle  and  inotlensive,  living  in 

well-built     villages, 

and    cultivating    the 
soil. 

The  gold  and  silver 
of  Mexico  and  Peru 
attracted  the  Span- 
iards. Through  the 
daring  deeds  of  a  few 
adventurers,  under 
such  leaders  as  Cortez 
and  Pizarro,  within 
forty  years  Spain 
ruled  from  Mexico  to 
the  Piiver  Plate,  ex- 
cept in  Brazil,  which 
the  Pope  had  be- 
stowed upon  Portu- 
gal, his  other  faith- 
ful child.  Mackenzie 
affirms  that  human 
history  has  no  page  so  dreadful  as  that  of  the  Spanish 
conquest  of  the  Americas.  The  number  of  Indians  who 
perished  within  fifty  years  has  been  variously  reckoned  at 
from  ten  to  forty  millions.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
was  established  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  although  its 
history  in  Spanish  America  contains  many  a  black  page,  it 
exercised  a  restraining  influence  on  behalf  of  the  oppressed 

^  America:  a  History. 
-   Frnin  tliis  word  "cauuibal"  is  derived. 


RUIXS   OK   THE   RICHLY   DECORATED   FiRST   PaLACE 

OK  Kabah,  Central  America. 
From  Charnay's  Ancient  Cities  of  the  Xew  World 


THE  NEW  WORLD  225 

natives.  The  magnificent  Spanish  empire  in  America 
was  won  by  the  pitiless  sword,  and  was  tyrannically  and 
selfishly  maintained  for  three  hundred  years.  But  the  time 
of  retribution  came  at  length.  The  islands  of  Cuba  and 
Puerto  Rico  alone  constitute  the  remnant  of  Spain's 
departed  glory,  and  on  the  continent  fourteen  Eepublics 
divide  her  old  dominions.^ 

The  northern  lands  were  won  not  by  the  sword  but  by 
the  plough,  not  by  gold-seeking  adventurers  but  by  Pilgrim 
Fathers  in  search  of  a  new  home  of  rest  and  freedom.  And 
no  more  striking  object-lesson  could  be  presented  than 
those  two  very  different  pictures  —  the  backward  and 
ignorant  south  under  the  Roman  Catholic  Latin  races, 
and  the  flourishing  and  intelligent  north  under  Protestant 
Anglo-Saxons.  History  has  here  writ  very  large  the 
blessings  of  an  open  Bible, 

West  Indian  Islands  and  Guiana 

The  practical  annihilation  of  the  Caribs  and  the  enslave- 
ment of  Africans  to  fill  their  places  have  been  already  noticed, 
as  well  as  the  Moravian  missions  to  the  negroes  (p.  67)  and 
the  work  of  Dr.  Coke,  "  the  flying  angel "  of  Methodism 
(p.  81).  Among  the  employers  of  labour  were  some  who 
did  their  duty  to  their  slaves.  Others,  fearing  the  result 
of  preaching  to  them  the  gospel  of  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
opposed  all  mission  work.  Their  attitude  became  more 
bitter  and  hostile  when  the  missionaries  naturally  took  the 
side  of  the  slaves  in  the  long  struggle  for  emancipation, 
and  supplied  condemnatory  evidence  to  the  abolitionists  at 
home.  The  Rev.  William  Knibb,  a  Baptist  missionary  in 
Jamaica,  with  whom  slavery  was  a  burning  question,  brought 
upon  himself  the  wrath  of  the  pro-slavery  party.  They 
had  him  more  than  once  put  in  prison  on  the  charge  of 
fomenting  native  risings,  but  he  was  as  often  discharged 

1    See  note  b,  p.  xvi. 


226  MISSIOXARY  EXPANSION 

"  not  guilty."  A  visit  he  paid  to  England  did  much  to 
forward  the  abolition  crusade,  and  he  had  the  joy  of  holding 
a  watch-night  service  in  Jamaica  on  the  eventful  eve  of 
liberty,  1st  August  1838.  "The  monster  is  dead;  the 
negro  is  free ! "  he  exclaimed  amidst  breathless  silence 
when  the  clock  struck  twelve.  "Never,"  said  he,  "did  I 
hear  such  a  sound.  The  winds 
of  freedom  appeared  to  have  been 
let  loose.  The  very  building 
shook  at  the  strange  yet   sacred 

joy." 

The  Rev.   John  Smith   of   the 
London     Missionary     Society     is 
known  as  "the  martyr  of  British 
Guiana."      Before    he  arrived   in 
Rev.  William  Knibb.         the  colony  in  1817,  his  colleague, 
From  the  Centenary  Volume  of  the  Rev.  John  Wray,  had  already 

the  Baptist  Missionary  Society.  .  .  pi- 

seen  nine  years  ot  successful  mis- 
sionary w^ork  and  of  earnest  and  painful  struggle  with 
those  opposed  to  emancipation.  The  Governor  gave 
this  caution  to  Smith,  "If  ever  you  teach  a  negro 
to  read,  I  will  banish  you  from  the  colony  immediately." 
Smith  was  not  to  be  intimidated ;  on  the  contrary, 
he  continued  his  work,  and  sent  home  a  trenchant 
exposure  of  the  evils  of  slavery.  An  Act  had  been 
passed  by  Parliament  in  1823  restricting  the  slaves'  hours 
of  working  to  nine,  and  prohibiting  the  flogging  of  women. 
The  Governor  deliberately  withheld  its  proclamation, 
and  as  the  slaves  had  got  the  mistaken  idea  that  their 
freedom  had  come,  an  insurrection  followed.  Smith  was 
imprisoned  and  charged  with  complicity  in  it.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  had  done  all  in  his  power  to  discourage  it.  Yet 
on  false  evidence  he  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  a  re- 
commendation to  mercy  accompanying  the  sentence.  The 
Colonial  Secretary  interfered,  but  it  was  too  late,  for  John 


THE  NEW  WORLD  227 

Smith,  worn  out  by  the  mental  and  bodily  sufferings  of  his 
confinement,  had  died  in  a  felon's  cell.  Lord  Brougham,  in 
a  noble  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  declared  that  if 
the  sentence  had  been  carried  out,  those  who  were  respon- 
sible must  themselves  have  died  the  death  of  murderers. 

The  mission  churches  of  the  British  West  Indies  are 
largely  self-supporting,  and  contain  well-nigh  100,000  com- 
municants out  of  a  population  of  1,000,000.  Little  has  been 
accomplished  by  Protestant  churches  in  the  Spanish  islands 
or  the  Catholic  republics  of  Hayti  and  San  Domingo.  A 
new  element  in  the  missionary  problem  has  been  introduced 
by  the  large  number  of  Hindu  coolies  brought  from  India 
for  the  plantations,  and  the  work  of  evangelising  them  has 
been  begun  with  many  tokens  of  success.  But  for  these 
Hindus,  British  and  Dutch  Guiana  might  be  called  Christian 
colonies. 

United  States  and  Canada 

The  fruits  of  the  missions  to  the  Red  Indians  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  (pp.  38  and  71) 
were  almost  wholly  destroyed  by  the  wars  with  the  French 
and  the  struggle  for  independence.  In  the  United  States 
the  earlier  eflforts  of  the  nineteenth  century,  too,  were  often 
sadly  hindered  by  the  systematic  and  ruthless  seizure 
by  the  whites  of  the  lands  of  the  Indians,  and  the  con- 
sequent deeds  of  revenge  on  the  part  of  those  who  were 
thus  wronged.  Before  the  forced  emigration  of  the  natives 
to  the  west  they  numbered  700,000 ;  now  they  do  not 
exceed  a  quarter  of  a  million.  No  doubt,  much  of  the 
decrease  was  due  to  their  own  heathen  rites  and  tribal  wars, 
but  one  of  the  chief  causes  was  the  introduction  among 
them  of  the  evil  habits  and  diseases  of  nominal  Christians. 
While  some  look  upon  the  Bed  man  as  doomed  to  disappear, 
others  contend  that  it  is  possible  by  fair  and  suitable 
dealing  to  save  him,  and  the  registration  returns  of  1873 


228 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


'^^y^^  ---^^-^ 


to  1884  show  that  even  ah^eady  the  tide  is  turning,  for 
during  that  period  the  births  exceeded  the  deaths  by 
5419.  The  Encydopmdia  of  Missions  states  that  there  are 
163  missionaries  among  the  Indians  of  the  States,  and 
22,000  church  members,  exclusive  of  the  five  civilised 
tribes  of  the  Indian  Territory.     There  are,  however,  many 

Indian  tribes  still 
to  be  evangelised, 
and  most  of  the 
American  churches 
are  engaged  in  the 
work. 

An  exhaustive 
account  of  the 
various  tribes  and 
of  the  work  being 
done  for  each  is  not 
possible  here.  We 
can  only  select  a 
particular  case. 
Among  the  Chero- 
kees,  who  were 
settled  in  the  State 
of  Georgia,  the 
liev.  Cyrus  Kings- 
l>ury  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  began  a 
successful  indus- 
A  notable  half-breed  Cherokee, 
In  a  short  time 


e^ 


,.,-  AN   Inmax  C'ni;i>riAN>. 
From  Rev.  Egerton  R.  Young's  Bij  Canoe  and 
Dog  Train  (Eaton  &  Mains). 


trial   mission  in  1815 

George  Guess,  invented  an  alphabet. 

the  first  paper  in  a  North  American  language  was  printed, 

and    the    Cherokees    attained    a    considerable    degree    of 

civilisation.      But  the  white  settlers  coveted  their  lands, 

and  got  an  order   for   their  removal  to  the  west  of  the 

Mississippi.      The  Indians  refused  to  obey  on  the  ground 


THE  NEW  WORLD    .  229 

that  they  had  the  promise  of  a  ijerpetual  holding.  In 
championing  the  cause  of  the  natives  the  missionaries, 
Worcester,  Butler,  and  others,  came  into  conflict  with  the 
State  authorities,  and  were  sentenced  to  four  years'  im- 
prisonment with  hard  labour,  but  the  Supreme  Court 
quashed  the  judgment  and  liberated  the  missionaries. 
The  Cherokees  were  at  length  forcibly  removed  by  the 
military  in  1838,  a  fourth  of  them  dying  on  the  westward 
journey.  This  breach  of  faith  not  only  deranged  the 
mission  work,  but  created  a  bitter  feeling  against  the 
religion  of  their  oppressors.  Those  days  are  past,  the 
attitude  towards  the  Indians  is  greatly  improved,  and  the 
religious  and  social  future  of  the  tribe  is  hopeful.  That 
the  Cherokees  are  not  disappearing  is  plain  from  the 
following  figures: — In  1836  their  number  was  reckoned 
as  15,000,  in  1876  they  numbered  21,000,  and  in  1884 
24,000. 

The  seven  and  a  half  millions  of  coloured  people  in  the 
States — the  legacy  of  African  slavery — are  nominally 
Christian,  but  the  religious  life  of  great  numbers  of  them 
is  on  a  low  level,  and  the  various  denominations  conduct 
Home  Mission  work  among  them. 

The  policy  of  Canada  towards  the  Indians  has  been  a 
just  and  kind  one,  and  its  results  have  therefore  been 
more  satisfactory  than  in  the  States.  More  than  half  of 
the  total  number  of  122,000  are  located  in  Government 
Reserves,  with  proper  regulations  for  their  care  and  educa- 
tion. In  Ontario  the  Indians  are  said  to  be  steadily 
increasing  in  numbers  and  intelligence.  The  Wesleyans 
and  Presbyterians  are  doing  extensive  mission  work  among 
the  Indians,  but  the  Church  Missionary  Society  has  taken 
the  leading  place  in  evangelising  the  tribes  of  the  vast 
territories  of  Manitoba,  the  North-West,  and  Columbia. 
The  Rev.  John  West,  the  first  chaplain  of  the  Hudson's 
]>ary  Company,  began  in  1822  to  teach  a  few  children  at 


230 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


lied  River  Colony  (now  Winnipeg).  Two  of  them,  lindd 
and  Settee,  became  successful  ordained  missionaries  to 
their  own  countrymen, 

A  native  settlement  on  the  Red  River,  which  was  begun 
under  many  difficulties  in  1831,  is  now  a  well-ordered, 
self-supporting  Christian  community  of  1000  people, 
under  the  pastoral  care  of  one  of  themselves.  Bishop 
Horden  of  Moosonee  spent  a  long  life  in  traversing  the 
snow  wastes  or  canoeing  along  the  interminable  water - 
channels  of  his  huge  diocese,  which  includes  the  shores 

of   Hudson's    Bay. 

"  -  *        The  whole  district 

has  been  evan- 
gelised, and  4000 
out  of  the  10,000 
natives  adhere  to 
the  mission. 

In  British  Col- 
umbia, across  the 
Rocky  Mountains, 
there  are  35,000 
Indians.  A  young 
schoolmaster, 
"William  Duncan,  was  sent  in  1857  to  begin  work 
among  the  barbarous  and  degraded  Tsimsheans  near  Fort 
Simpson.  Four  years  later  the  first  converts  were  re- 
ceived, and  Duncan  soon  felt  the  necessity  of  "  fixing  his 
headquarters  at  some  place  removed  from  the  contamination 
of  ungodly  white  men."  Metlakahtla,  17  miles  distant,  was 
chosen,  and  an  invitation  to  settle  was  given  to  all  Indians 
"who  were  willing  to  obey  certain  rules  which  would  involve 
a  radical  change  in  their  habits.  The  settlement  gradu- 
ally grew  and  became  a  centre  of  good  work  of  all  kinds, 
civilising  and  religious.  By  1879  no  less  than  579  adults 
and  410  children  had  been  baptized.    When  Lord  Dufferin 


THE  NEW  WORLD  231 

was  Governor-General  lie  visited  Metlakahtla  and  "  could 
find  no  words  to  express  his  astonishment "  at  what  he 
saw.  Owing  to  an  unfortunate  disjDute  with  the  home 
Society  a  disruption  took  place,  and  in  1887  Mr.  Duncan 
led  off  the  greater  part  of  the  people  to  a  new  settlement 
on  Annette  Island  in  Alaska.  The  original  work,  how- 
ever, has  continued  to  prosper  under  the  direction  of 
Bishop  Ridley. 

Much  heroism  has  been  shown  in  connection  with 
missions  in  Alaska.  For  thirty -five  years  Archdeacon 
M 'Donald  has  laboured  in  the  region  of  the  Yukon  River, 
now  famous  for  its  Klondike  goldfields,  and  Bishop  Bompas 
and  he  early  had  the  privilege  of  baptizing  a  thousand 
Tukudh  converts.  The  Moravians  and  many  American 
churches  are  labouring  farther  north,  the  Presbyterians 
occupying  Fort  Barrow,  the  extreme  northerly  part  of 
the  continent. 

Spanish  America 

Henry  Martyn  touched  at  Bahia,  Brazil,  on  his  way  to 
India,  and  the  sense  of  its  spiritual  needs  caused  him  to 
say :  "  What  happy  missionary  shall  be  sent  to  bear  the 
name  of  Christ  to  these  Western  regions?  When  shall 
this  beautiful  country  be  delivered  from  idolatry  and 
spurious  Christianity  ?  Crosses  there  are  in  abundance,  but 
when  shall  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  be  held  up  1 "  The 
story  of  the  opening  of  those  closed  doors  to  a  pure  gospel 
is  full  of  interest,  and  it  has  a  close  bearing  on  the 
evangelisation  of  the  heathen.  Had  it  been  within  our 
province  we  might  have  told  how  in  Brazil  itself  such 
men  as  Spaulding  of  the  American  Board  and  Kalley,  the 
devoted  Scottish  physician,  did  the  work  of  pioneers ;  how 
the  battle  for  religious  toleration  has  been  won  in  almost 
all  the  republics — in  Mexico,  for  example,  by  Juarez,  an 
Indian  patriot,  who  became  the  President  on  the  overthrow 


■'^wau,,, 


iYWEZUELA 


COLOMBIA 


EGUADjttft 

■■-■"jt::^.- 


•;v;  .^r'>  ^"^  IRcglectcb 
Continent. 


^»i** 


PERU    <i^x^    UNITED     STATES* 


B  R  A  Z I  L 


BOLIVIA    i 


mfk^ 


'^„*»EPUBUC 


KEY  TO  THE  BLACK  MISSIONARY 
MAP  OF  3.  AMERICA. 

Date  o(  Founding 
«lECFE^'<   '"  S  America 

1735.     Moravian      Missionary 
p^nr^  Society  {9). 

WflW  "">  CfiAKtiE  1815.     West  Indian  Conference 

ffii>  (WesleyanXi.). 

9i^  1821       London  Alissionary 

""Te  ^  Society  (12). 

°^  1B24.     British      and      Foreign 

Bible  Society  (14). 
\%-\b.     American  Methodist  Episcopal  Nonh(5) 
1840      Plymouth  Brethren  (t6) 
South  American  Missionary  Society  (10). 
Dr    Kalleys  Churches  "  Help  for  Brajil  "  (8). 
American  Presbyterian  (North  and  South)(2  and  3). 
Society  for  the  Propagation  o(  the  Gospel  (13). 
American  Bible  Society  (15). 
American  Methodist  Episcopal,  South  (4X 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  (1). 
Bishop  Taylors  Mission  (7). 
American  Episcopal  (6X 
Salvation  Army. 


NLI^r. 


FALKLAND  IS 


Note. — This  map  of  SoiTtli  America  is  adapted  from  Miss  Lucy  E. 
Guinness's  hook,  The  Neglected  Continent  (F.  H.  Revell  Company).  The 
white  spots  represent  the  places  occupied  l)y  Protestant  agencies,  and 
the  small  figures  attaclied  to  tliem  give  the  reference  to  the  Church  or 
Society  at  work  as  shown  in  the  accompanying  key.  Tlie  large  Roman 
numerals  roughly  indicate  the  position  a"nd  tlistiibution  of  the  chief 
Indian  tribes,  as  follows  :  — 


THE  NEW  WORLD  233 

of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  ;  and  liow  the  churches  have 
been  taking  advantage  of  the  offered  opportunities. 

But  our  concern  is  with  the  Indians.  In  Mexico  ahnost 
half  the  population  are  Indians  and  Roman  Catholics  ;  but 
in  South  America  a  large  part  of  the  natives  are  still  un- 
civilised and  unevangelised.  The  name  of  Captain  Allen 
Gardiner,  R.N.,  stands  out  as  that  of  the  brave  pioneer  in  this 
field.  In  his  earlier  efforts  he  was  repeatedly  baffled,  till  in 
1850  he  landed  with  six  companions  in  Tierra  del  Fuego, 
near  Cape  Horn.  The  natives, 
— according  to  Charles  Darwin, 
who  had  visited  them  in  the 
Beagle, — were  the  very  lowest  of 
the  human  race,  and  he  con- 
sidered it  utterly  useless  to  send 
missionaries  to  such  savages. 
One  by  one  the  band  died  of 
starvation,      after     indescribable  i 

sufferings,  their  lives  being  spent 
in  fear  of  the  savages ;  yet  mar-  ^^lkn  Gardiner. 

VelloUS    are   the  joyful   entries    in  From  r/je  Sfor?/ 0/ ?iis  Li/e,  by  Marsb 
the   diary    of    Gardiner,   who    was       and  Stirling  (Nisbet  and  Co.). 

the  last  to  be  released.  To  the  end  he  prayed  for  "  poor 
Fuegia."  In  the  prospect  of  death  he  wrote,  "If  I  have 
a  wish  for  the  good  of  my  fellow-men,  it  is  that  the  Tierra 
del  Fuego  Mission  might  be  prosecuted  with  vigour,  and  the 
work  in  South  America  commenced."  His  prayer  was 
answered.     The  South  American  Missionary  Society  has 

T.  Orinoco  Races  (Caribos,  Barre,  Muiscas,  etc.)     .         .     1,250,000 
II.  Amazon  Valley  Races  (Zupi,  Jivaro,  Zaparo,  etc.)  1  000  000 

III.  Peruvian     and    Bolivian    Races     (Quichuas,     Moxos, 

Chiquitos,  etc.) 1,500,000 

IV.  Brazilian,  south  of  Amazon  (Gnaranis,  Guandos,  etc.)      1,000,000 
V.  Southern  Races  (Araucauiaus,  Puelches,  Fuegians,  etc.)        250,000 

Total     5,000,000 


234 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


continued  and  extended  the  Patagonian  Mission,  and 
Darwin  gave  a  noble  testimony  to  its  work  when  he  wrote 
in  1870,  "The  success  of  the  Tierra  del  Fuego  Mission  is 
most  wonderful,  and  charms  me,  as  I  always  prophesied 
utter  failure.  I  shall  feel  proud  if  your  Committee  think 
fit  to  elect  me  an  honorary  member  of  your  Society." 

Allen  Gardiner's  son  and  grandson  have  likewise  laid 
down  their  lives  for  South  America.  The  latter  died  just 
as  he  was  beginning  medical  mission  work  among  the 
Araucanians  of  Chili,  whom  his  grandfather  had  earlier 
sought  to  reach.  The  South  American  Missionary  Society 
has  also  a  mission  in  the  Gran  Chaco,  Paraguay,  which  is 
held  to  be  a  centre  from  which  2,000,000  heathen  may 
be  effectively  reached.  Of  late  considerable  attention  has 
been  drawn  to  the  needs  of  South  America.  Various  new 
efforts  are  being  proposed,  and  there  is  an  urgent  call  for 
more  labourers  to  go  to  the  5,000,000  Indians  of  the 
Neglected  Continent. 


The  Gran  Chaco  Mi.ssionakies,  with  Assistants  and  Indians. 
From  the  South  American  Missionary  Ma,gazine. 


OJ?'-' 

.-^i"* 
"V,. 

; 

^-'B, 

. 

v.:^^ 

"* 

■iK" ''"-'''. 

^^ - 

^ 

f" 

^^S^' 

„7a^ 

"' 

? 

'^  ^^^& 

L 

w 

'     %?'•« 

THE 

!Sb,j».u^    1-he 

WORLD        ,    A  """" 

-  '■^.  „ 

- 

7 
,.^. 

,.  .-i-C. 

FipluUi.!-, 

" 

'- 

1798  1898  When? 

White  represents  the  Christian  and  Black  the  Non-Christian  World.i 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE    world's    evangelisation 

Our  rapid  survey  of  missionary  expansion  has  been  an 
attempt  to  show  how  far  and  with  what  results  our  Lord's 
"marching  orders"  have  been  obeyed  by  the  Reformed 
Churches.  Many  lessons  might  be  drawn  from  the  facts 
which  have  been  presented,  but  we  must  content  ourselves 
with  a  brief  reference  to  four  evident  conclusions. 

I.  The  results  already  attained,  more  particularly  during 
the  last  hundred  years,  give  cause  for  gratitude.  This  was 
brought  out  in  a  striking  manner  at  the  great  Centenary 
Missionary  Conference  held  in  London  in  1888  in  con- 
nection with  the  completion  of  the  first  century  of  the 
modern  missionary  movement.  At  the  beginning  of 
that  century  the  Churches  were  dead  to  the  claims  of 
the  heathen  world.  Now  every  branch  has  its  Foreign 
Mission  Board  or  Society  whose  work  focusses  the 
living  interest  of  the  best  of  its  members.  Before  the 
famous  meeting  at  Kettering  in  1792  only  one  or 
two  agencies  were    at  work    among    the   heathen ;    now 

1  This  illustration  and  the  two  following  are  aJai)tea  from  the 
diagrams  in  Make  Jesus  Kiny,  the  Report  of  the  Liverpool  Conference 
of  the  Htudeuts'  Volunteer  Missionary  Union,  1896  (Revell). 


236 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


there  are  about  150  separate  organisations  with  an  annual 
income  of  over  two  and  a  half  million  pounds.  Then 
there  were  but  a  few  missionaries  representing  Christendom 
among  non-Christians  ;  now  there  is  a  great  army  with  well- 
nigh  10,000  missionary  officers  (one-third  of  them  women), 
aided  by  50,000  native  workers,  of  whom  3300  are 
ordained.  Then  the  present  great  mission  -  fields  were 
either   unknown    or    closed   to  the  free   entrance  of  the 


RonflM  Catholics  205  Million 

.[ —J     PR0T£STflMT5  140 

imilllljl    Creek  Church  89 

I        I  Jews  e 

■■    Heathen  &-PflCflH  87o 

MflHOMMEDflHS  175 


RELTnious  Census  of  the  World. 

Gospel;  now  the  whole  wide  world,  with  inconsiderable 
exceptions,  is  open  to  its  heralds.  Then  the  converts  of 
Protestant  Churches  in  heathendom  were  reckoned  by  the 
thousand,  now  there  are  said  to  be  3,000,000.  Then 
the  power  of  politics  and  the  influence  of  the  press  were 
almost  wholly,  and  often  bitterly,  opposed  to  foreign 
missionary  enterprise ;  now  the  missionary  is  looked  upon 
as  the  pioneer  of  civilisation  and  the  valued  ally  of  good 


(     4-54 
/  MiLLior 

(    1053 

(  Million 


IT.  But  notunthstanding  past  success,  only  a  heginning 
has  been  made  7vith  the  ivorh  of  missions.     The  map  of  the 


THE  WORLD'S  EVANGELISATION  237 

Prevailing  lleligions  of  the  World  abundantly  proves  that 
there  is  still  much  land  to  be  possessed.  The  area  actually 
occupied  by  Christian  peoples  is  small  compared  with  that 
of  the  non-Christian  nations,  and  large  tracts  of  the  earth's 
surface  remain  unevangelised.  By  the  accompanying 
diagram  the  disparity  is  even  more  strikingly  brought 
out.  We  rejoice  over  three  million  converts  as  the  result 
of  the  modern  mission,  but  what  are  they  to  the  thousand 


The  WniTE  Wedge  represents  the  Proportion  of  Native  Converts  to 
Unconverted  Heathendom. 

million  still  unconverted  ?  And  the  startling  fact  presents 
itself  that  during  the  period  in  which  the  three  millions 
have  been  won,  the  natural  increase  of  heathendom  is 
reckoned  at  two  hundred  millions  ! 

III.  The  disciples  of  Christ  must  therefore  be  more 
earnest  and  self-sacrificing  if  the  whole  world  is  to  he 
sjyeedily  evangelised.  The  number  of  those  who  feel 
called  to  go  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen  increases 
yearly,  but  their  number  is  utterly  inadequate  to  meet  the 
urgent  calls  which  open  doors  of  opportunity  are  presenting 
to  the  Churches.     A  great  host  of  consecrated  men  and 


238  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 

women — the  very  best  in  Christendom — are  at  present 
needed  in  the  world's  harvest  field.  And  to  helj)  them  to  go 
there  is  required  a  larger  j^roportion  of  the  wealth  of  those 
who  are  unable  to  give  personal  service.  What  is  being  done 
by  the  poor  Moravian  Church  shows  what  might  be  done 
by  others.  If  even  their  standard  were  reached  by  the  other 
Reformed  Churches,  these  would  be  represented,  says  Mrs. 
Bird  Bishop,  by  two  hundred  thousand  missionaries,  and 
would  contribute  £140,000,000  a  year.  "We  spend,"  she 
adds  (referring  to  the  United  Kingdom),  "£160,000,000, 
or  three  guineas  a  head,  upon  drink;  we  smoke  £16,000,000, 
and  we  hoard  £240,000,000,  while  our  whole  contributions 

Missions  to  the 

HEATHEM.J_I.500.000 


Tobacco 

BILL 
£16.000,000 


DI^1NK  Bill  of  the  United  Kincdom^i^o.ooo.  goo 

Comparative  Expenditure  in  the  United  KingdOiM  on  Drink,  Tobacco, 
AND  Christian  Missions. 

for  the  conversion  of  this  miserable  world  are  but  one  and 
a  half  million  pounds,  or  ninepence  a  head."i 

IV.  Yet^  ivithal^  the 'present  oiLtlooh  is  full  of  lioiw.  Of 
all  the  faiths  of  the  world,  Christianity  alone  presents  the 
aj^pearance  of  a  world-wide  religion.  Mr.  Gladstone  has 
said  that  "the  art,  literature,  the  systematised  industry, 
invention,  and  commerce — in  one  word,  the  power  of  the 
world — are  almost  wholly  Christian."  The  Christian 
nations  exercise  political  power  over  thirty-two  out  of  the 
fifty-two  million  square  miles  of  the  earth's  surface — 
Protestant    Great    Britain  alone  over  one -fourth  of  the 

1  From  an  address  entitled  "  Heathen  Claims  and  Christian  Duty," 
to  be  obtained  from  the  Church  Mission  House,  London. 


THE  WORLD'S  EVANGELISATION  239 

whole  world — and  the  Christian  peoples  increase  in  a 
higher  ratio  than  do  the  non-Christian.  The  hold  of  the 
non-Christian  faiths  is  weakened  as  knowledge  increases, 
while,  as  Dr.  Barrows,  the  President  of  the  World's 
Parliament  of  Pteligions  held  at  Chicago,  asserts,^  "It 
is  vastly  significant,  and  in  accordance  with  the  genius 
of  Christianity,  that  the  religion  of  Christ  has  in 
this  century  of  intellectual  progress,  when  superstitions 
have  been  dispelled  by  the  light  of  truth,  made  more 
memorable  and  rapid  conquests  than  in  any  previous 
period  since  the  downfall  of  Roman  paganism." 

Not  a  few  enthusiasts  have  been  summoning  the 
Churches  to  undertake  the  evangelisation  of  the  world  in 
this  generation.  Among  those  who  think  this  possible 
are  the  members  of  the  Students'  Volunteer  Missionary 
Union,  an  organisation  at  once  significant  and  hopeful, 
which  embraces  over  1000  students  in  nearly  100 
British  Universities  and  Colleges  who  have  signed  the 
declaration,  "It  is  my  purpose,  if  God  permit,  to  become 
a  foreign  missionary."  The  Union  is  the  outcome  of  a 
remarkable  missionary  movement  among  the  university 
and  college  students,  largely  forwarded  in  Great  Britain 
by  Messrs.  Stanley  Smith  and  Studd,  and  in  America 
by  Messrs.  Wilder  and  Forman.  Since  the  movement 
began  upwards  of  5000  volunteers  have  been  enrolled  in 
500  different  American  colleges,  and  of  these  800  have 
already  reached  the  mission-field. 

But  however  we  may  be  encouraged  by  the  success  of 
missions  in  the  past,  it  is  not  on  that  we  should  chiefly  rest 
our  hopes  or  base  our  arguments  for  the  speedy  evangel- 
isation of  the  world.     Rather  would  we  dwell  upon  the 

^  Barrows'  Lectures,  1896-97,  Christianity  the  World's  Religion. 
Lectures  delivered  in  India,  published  by  the  Christian  Literature 
Society  for  India. 


240 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


promises  and  prophecies,  and  upon  the  commands  of 
God's  Word.  Our  duty  would  be  no  less  plain,  had  our 
survey  been  nothing  beyond  a  record  of  failures.  For,  as 
Lord  Balfour  of  Burleigh  said  lately  in  advocating  the 
necessity  of  "  Foreign  Mission  Advance  "  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  "  In  this  matter  we  are  entitled  to  take  up  high 
ground.  '  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel 
to  every  creature.'  That  command  admits  of  no  cpiali- 
fication  or  diminution.  It  is  distinct,  and  it  is  of  universal 
obligation.  The  success  or  non-success  of  the  mission  has 
no  reference  to  the  binding  character  of  the  obligation." 

The  Light  of  the  World  has  come !  We  have  traced 
how  it  is  gradually  irradiating  shore  after  shore.  The 
darkness  is  disappearing,  and  already 

Out  of  the  shadow  of  night 
The  World  rolls  into  light ; 
It  is  Daybreak  everywhere. 


0»  M/UdO/M  S"  '-'''"    ^ 

"The  Wokd  of  thk  Lord  knuuketh  for  Ever." 
From  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society's  Publications. 


INDEX 


Africa,  Moravian  missions  in  South, 
73-75 

AFRICA— The  Pagan  or  Dark  Con- 
tinent, 16S  ;  explorations,  168, 169  ; 
the  slave  trade,  161) ;  prevailing 
cruelty,  170  ;  raciab  distribution, 
170 ;  Language  Map,  171  ;  Early 
Christian  Churcli  of  Africa,  172. 
West  Africa  :  Sierra  Leone,  172, 
173  ;  Liberia,  173  ;  Gold  Coast,  174 ; 
Old  Calabar,  175  ;  Cameroons,  175  ; 
the  Niger,  Bishop  Crowther,  176- 
178;  South  Africa:  "the  light 
end     of     the     Dark     Continent," 

178  ;  Hottentots,  Vanderkeinp,  179  ; 
Great  Namaqualand,  Robert  Moffat, 

179  ;  Bechuanas,  ISO  ;  Kattirs,  181  ; 
Basutos,  182  ;  Zulus,  Harms'  work, 
183 ;  other  eflorts,  184.  Central 
Africa  :  David  Livingstone,  184- 
188 ;  Stanley,  187  ;  Bishop  Mac- 
kenzie, 188  ;  Zanzibar,  189  ;  Living- 
stonia,  190  ;  Blantyre,  191 ;  Uganda, 
193-195  ;  the  Congo,  196 

Alexander  of  Jerusalem,  Bisliop,  19 
America,  Moravian  missions  to,  71 
AMERICA— Discovery,  223  ;  early 
condition  of  country  and  people, 
223 ;  Spanish  conquest,  224 ;  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  225.  WEsr  Indian 
Islands  and  Guiana  :  Rev.  William 
Knibb,  225  ;  Rev.  John  Smith,  226  ; 
present  condition  of  the  churches, 
227.  United  States  and  Canada  : 
Indians  in  the  States,  227 ;  the 
Cherokees,  228 ;  negroes  in  the 
United  States,  229  ;  Indians  in 
Canada,  229 ;  Metlakahtla,  231  ; 
Alaska,  231.  Spanish  America  : 
its  opening  to  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity, 231  ;  "The  Neglected 
Continent,"  232  ;  work  among  the 
Indians,233;  Cajj tain  Allen  (Jardiner, 
23  ;  South  American  Missionary 
Society,  234 
American  Baptist  Missionary  Union, 
94 


American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions  instituted,  94 

Colonies,  missions  to,  38-50 

Anderson  of  Madras,  Rev.  John,  115 
Apathy   regarding    missions   due  to 

ignorance,  4 
Arabia,  200 

Baptist  Missionary  Society  formed . 

87 
Basle  Mission,  95,  174,  175,  176,  204 
Berkeley,  49 
Bethelsdorp,  179 
Bland,  Mrs.(North  American  Indians). 

41 
Blantyre  Mission,  191 
Bible  and  ini-ssions.  The,  3 
Bishop    on    missionary    work,   Mrs. 

Bird,  160,  238 
Bonisch,  Frederick  (Greenland),  65 
Boyle,  Hon.  Robert,  41 
Brainerd,    David    (North    American 

Indians),  45 
John  (North  American  Indians), 

46 
Brazil,  34,  231 

Buchanan,  Rev.  Claudius,  94,  102 
Buddha,  131, 132 
Buddhism,  its  early  spread,  133 
Buriats  of  Siberia,  157 
Burma,  135-138 
Burma,  Karens  of,  137 
Burns,  Rev.  W.  C.  (China),  148 

Calabar,  Old,  175 

Callenberg,  18 

Cameroons,  175 

Candidius,  George  (Formosa),  37 

Carey,  William  (India),  85-88,  109-112 

Ceylon  :  Dutch  missions,  35-37  ;  Bud- 
dhism in  Ceylon,  134  ;  modern  mis- 
sionary effort  in  Ceylon,  135 

Chalmers,  Rev.  James  (New  Guinea), 
215 

CHINA— Description,139 ;  Religions : 
Confucianism,  141;  Taoism,  141; 
Buddhism,  142;  ancestor  worship, 


243 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


142  ;  Fung  Shui,  •143  ;  Nestorian 
Church,  144  ;  Morrison's  work, 
145  ;  ojjening  of  China,  147  ;  opium 
curse,  148 ;  Bunis's  work,  14S  ; 
Hung  Siu  Chuen,  14'J ;  Treaty 
of  Tientsin,  150 ;  China  Inland 
Mission,  151  ;  persecutions,  152 ; 
medical  missions,  153 ;  Chinese 
learning,  154  ;  Bible  translation, 
154  ;  Tibetan  work,  155  ;  Mongolia, 
157  ;  Manchuria,  157  ;  Cliinese  be- 
yond China,  157  ;  statistics  of  mis- 
sionary results,  158 

Christian  Vernacular  Education 
Society  of  India,  107 

Church  Missionary  Society  instituted, 
92 

of   Scotland's  first    missionary 

debate,  91 

of   Scotland   missions,   21,  113- 

115,  125,  156,  191 

Coke,  Dr.,  81,  225 

Coligny,  34 

Colonisation    leading    to    missionary 

expansion,  83 
Columbus,  33.  223 
Comber  (Africa),  196,  197 
Congo,  The,  190-198 
Continental   Missionary  Societies   at 

beginning  of   nineteenth   century, 

94,  95 
Cook,  Captain,  84,  86,  90 
Corporation    for  the  Propagation  of 

the  Gospel  in  New  England,  40 
Cromwell's  interest  in  missions,  40 
Crowther,  Bishop  (Africa),  176-178 
Crusaders,  the,  8 

Danish -Halle    Mission    to    India, 

52-59 
Danish  mission  in  Greenland,  59 
Darien  Expedition,  49 
David,  Christian,  62,  68 
Delitzsch,  Professor,  23 
Dober  and  Nitschman  (St.  Thomas), 

64,  67 
Doshisha,  The,  164 
Duff,  Dr.  Alexander  (Calcutta),  113, 

114 
Dioff,  the,  90,  208 
Duncan,  Rabbi,  21 
Dutch   missions   in   Dutch   colonies, 

35  ;   in   Ceylon,    35  ;    East    Indian 

Islands,  37  ;  India,  38 

Bast  India  Company,  50,  84,  105,  146 
Edinburgh        Medical       Missionary 

Society,  120 

Missionary  Society,  90 

Edward,  Rev.  Daniel  (Jews),  22 
Edwards,  Rev.  Jonathan,  45,  83 
Edzard,  Esdras  (Jews),  17 
Egede,  Hans  (Greenland),  59-61 
Ehrhardt,  John  Christian  (Labrador), 

70 


Eliot,  John  (North  American  Indians), 
41-44 

Ellis,  Rev.  William  (Madagascar),  220 

Erasmus,  9 

Erskine,  Dr.  John,  91 

Evangelical  revival,  82 

EVANGELISATION  OF  THE 
WORLD  —  Results  accomplished, 
235  ;  work  still  to  be  done,  237 ;  call 
for  earnestness  and  self-sacrifice 
on  the  part  of  Christians,  238 ; 
hopefulness  of  the  outlook,  238 

Falconer,  Hon.  Ion  Keith  (Arabia), 

200 
Fetichism,  170 
Fiji,  211 

Formosa,  37,  166 
Forsyth,  Nathaniel  (India),  104 
Francis  of  Assisi,  8 
Francke,  Augustus  Herman,  54 
Free   Church  of   Scotland  missions, 

22,  115,  181,  182,  190,  200,  213 
Frey,  C.  F.  (Jews),  18,  25 
Friendly  Islands,  211 
Fuller,  Andrew,  88 

Garanganze,  192 

Gardiner,      Captain     Allen      (South 

America),  233 
German  Pietists,  55 
Gilmour,  James  (Mongolia),  157 
Glasgow  Missionary  Society,  90 
Gold  Coast,  174 
Greenland,  59,  65,  68 
Grotius'   The   Truth  of  the   Christian 

Ueligion,  35 
Guiana  missions,  67,  226 
Gustavus  of  Sweden,  King,  34 

Haldanes,  The,  90 

Hannington,  Bishop  (Africa),  194 

Harms,  Louis,  183 

Haven,  Jens  (Labrador),  70 

Haweis,  Dr.,  89 

Heriot,  Thomas  (America),  39 

Hervey  Islands,  210 

Heyling,  Peter  (Abyssinia),  52 

Hinduism,  97-99 

Hunt,  Rev.  John  (Fiji),  211 

Hymn,  First  Missionary,  55 

India,  early  missions  in,  50,  51 

Mission  of  Church  of  Scotland 

institut'-d,  92 
INDIA  — Greatest  of  the  mission- 
tieids,  96  ;  description.  96 ;  early 
history,  97  ;  Vedism,  97  ;  language 
map,  98  ;  Hinduism,  99  ;  other  re- 
ligions, 100,  101 ;  early  missions, 
102  ;  Romish  missions— Xavier,  103; 
present  strength  of  the  missionary 
army,  103,  104 ;  attitude  of  the 
Government  to  missions,  104,  105  ; 
the  Mutiny,  106-108 ;  missionary  ad- 


INDEX 


243 


vocioy  of  Indian  Civilians,  10^,  100  ; 
C.iiey,  Marshman,  and  Ward,  109- 
113;  Bible  translation,  111  ;  educa- 
tional missions,  118-116  ;  missions 
to  women,  116-119  ;  medical  mis- 
sions, 119,120;  itineration  work, 
120 ;  orphanages,  120 ;  Mission  to 
Lepers,  121 ;  Sunday  Schools,  121  : 
caste  divisions,  122 ;  work  amony 
Tamil-speaking  Panchamas  in  Tin- 
nevelly,  122  ;  in  Travancore,  123  ; 
the  Telegu  Panchamas,  124 ;  the 
Chamars,  125  ;  the  Chuhras  of  the 
Punjab,  125 ;  non-Aryan  aboriginal 
tribes,  126;  statistics  of  native 
Protestant  Church,  127  ;  character 
of  native  Christians,  128 ;  indirect 
results,  129  ;  prospects,  129 

Institvt am  Judaicum,  IS,  24 

ISLAM— Spread  of  Islam,  199  ;  its 
evils,  200 ;  Arabia,  200 ;  Turkish 
Empire,  201  ;  revival  of  degenerate 
Oriental  Churches,  202  ;  missionary 
efforts  of  American  Societies,  202  ; 
Egypt,  203  ;  North  Africa,  204 ; 
Persia,  Henry  Martyn,  204  ;  India, 
205  ;  Indian  Archipelago,  206 

Jains,  The,  100 
Japan,  160-167 

JEWISH  MISSIONS— Jewish  popu- 
lation, 12,  13  ;  the  Wandering  Jew, 
14,  15  ;  Jews'  place  in  early  Chris- 
tianity, 16 ;  the  Jews  before  the 
Reformation,  17 ;  missionary  effort 
for  the  Jews  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  17,  IS  ; 
London  Society  for  Promoting 
Christianity  among  the  Jews,  IS  ; 
Rev.  Joseph  Wolff,  19  ;  Jewish 
Missionary  Societies  in  England, 
20  ;  Jewish  Mission  of  Church  of 
Scotland,  20-22  ;  of  other  Presby- 
terian Churches,  22,  23  ;  of  the  Con- 
tinental Churches,  23,  24  ;  of  the 
American  Churches,  25 ;  summary 
of  Jewish  missionary  efforts,  26  ; 
Jewish  missionary  results,  26  ;  diffi- 
culties of  Jewish  missions,  27,  28  ; 
the  Jews  and  Palestine,  28,  29  ; 
Christianity's  debt  to  the  Jews, 
30 
John,  Dr.  Griffith  (China),  150 
Johnson,  W.  A.  B.  (Africa),  172 
Judson,A(lonirara  (Burma),  0.5,135-137 
Junius,  Rev.  Robert  (Formosa),  37 

Kaffraria,  181 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  testimony  to 

Christ,  2 
Khama,  181 
Kiernaudcr  (India),  58 
Knibb,  Uev.  William  (Jamaica),  226 
Korea,  159,  160 
Ko-Thah-byu  (Burma),  137 


Krapf,  Dr.  J.  Lewis  (Africa),  169  184, 

192 

Labrador,  70 
Lapland,  34,  59 
Lawrence,  Lord,  109 
Liberia,  173 
Lichtenstein  (Jews),  25 
Livingstone,  David  (Africa),  184-188 
Livingstonia,  190 

London  Missionary  Society  fonned,  89 
Society  for  Promoting  Christi- 
anity among  the  Jews,  IS,  19 
Lovedale,  182 
Loyola,  11 

Lull,  Raymond  (Mohammedans),  8 
Luther,  9,  10 

Mackay,  a.  M.  (Uganda),  193-195 

Madagascar,  218-222 

Malayan  Archipelago,  37,  206,  217 

Manchuria,  157 

Marsden,  Rev.  Samuel  (New  Zealand), 

214 
Marshman  (India),  104,  110 
Martyn,  Henry  (Persia),  93,  231 
Mayliews,     The    (North      American 

Indians),  44 
Metlakahtla,  230 
Milne,  William  (China),  146 
Moffat,  Robert  (Africa),  179,  180 
Mohammedanism  in  India,  101 

in  China,  144 

(see  Islam) 

Mongolia,  157 

MORAVIAN  MISSIONS— Establish- 
ment of  Herrnhut,  62,  63  ;  Zinzen- 
dorf,   63-66 ;    West    Indies,   64-67 ; 
Greenland,     65-68 ;     Guiana,     68 ; 
Labrador,     70  ;     North    American 
Indians,  71  ;  South  Africa,  73-75  ; 
other  efforts,  76  ;  lowly  position  of 
their  missi(maries,  76  ;  their  special 
sphere  in  mission  work,  77  ;  their 
present  position,  78  ;  Tibet,  156 
Morrison,  Robert  (China),  145-147 
Miiller's  tract.  Rev.  John,  18 
Murray,  Rev.  W.  H.  (China),  154 

Neksima,  Joseph  (Japan),  164 
Nestorian  Church,  102,  144,  205 
New  Guinea,  214 
New  Hebrides,  212 
New  Zealand,  213 
Niger,  The,  176-178 

Opium  Curse,  148 

Pant^nus,   the  first    missionary   to 

India,  102 
Parsis,  The,  101 
Paton,  Rev.  John  G.  (New  Hebrides). 

212 
Patte.son,    Bishop  Coleridge  (Melan 

esia),  213 


244 


MISSIONARY  EXPANSION 


Penn,  William,  44 

Pesth  Mission  to  Jews,  21 

Pliitschau  (India),  55 

Rabinowitz,  Joseph  (Jews),  24 
Ranch,     Henry     (North     American 

Indians),  72 
Rebman  (Africa),  169,  184,  192 
Red  Indian  missions,  38-50,  71-73 
Refomiation  as  a   missionarj'   force, 

the,  10 
Christendom  at  the,  7 

Saker,  Alkred  (Africa),  175 
Samoa,  210 
Saphir,  Adolph,  22 

Israel,  21 

Schmidt,  George  (Hottentots),  74 
Schultz,  Stephen  (Jews),  18 
Schwartz,  Christian  Frederic  (India), 

56,  57 
Scudder,  Dr.  John  (India),  119 
Sehvyn,  Bishop  (Melanesia),  213 
Serampore  College,  110,  113 


'  105,  110 
(North     American 


"Serampore  trio. 

Sergeant,     John 
Indians),  45 

Shintoism,  161 

Siam,  138,  139 

Sierra  Leone,  172 

Si-gnan-fu  tablet,  144 

Slave  trade,  48,  169 

Smith,  Rev.  John  (British  Guiana), 
226 

Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  47 

Soga,  Rev.  Tiyo  (Kaffraria),  181 

SOUTHERN  ISLES— Geographical 
division,  207  ;  romance  of  the 
South  Sea  missions,  208  ;  Tahiti, 
the  Society  Grouii,  208 ;  Hervey 
Group,  John  Williams,  210  ;  Samoa, 
210  ;  Tonga  or  Friendly  Islands, 
211 ;  Fiji,  211  ;  Sandwich  or  Ha- 
waiian Islands,  212  ;  New  Hebrides, 
Rev.  John  G.  Paton,  212  ;  Anglican 
Melanesian  Mission,  Bishop  Selwyn, 
Bishop  Coleridge  Patteson,  213  ; 
New  Zealand,  Rev.  Samuel  Marsdeu, 


213  ;  Australia,  214 ;  New  Guinea, 
Rev.  James  Chalmers,  214 ;  Loyalty 
Group,  215  ;  Malayan  Archipelago, 
217  ;  -Madagascar,  21S-222 

Stach,  Matthew  (Greenland),  65,  68 

Stanley,  H.  M.,  187 

Students'  Volunteer  Missionary 
Union,  239 

Suttee,  abolition  of,  105 

Tahiti,  209 

Taylor,  Rev.  J.  Hudson  (CHiina),  151 

Thomas,  John,  87 

Thompson,  Rev.  James  (Africa),  49 

Tibet,  155 

Uganda,  193-196 

United      Presbyterian      Church      of 

Scotland   missions,   107,  tl57,   174, 

175,  181,  190,  227 

Vanderkemp,  94,  179 
Vasco  da  Gama,  33 
Villegagnon,  34 
Virginia,  39 

Wandering  Jew,  14 
Ward  (India),  104,  110 
Way,  Lewis  (Jews),  18 
Welz,  Baron  von  (Dutch  Guiana),  53 
Wesley,  John,  49 

Wesleyan    Missionary    Society   insti- 
tuted, 93 
Westen,  Thomas  von  (Lapland),  59 
West  Indies,  OS 
Whitfield,  82 

Williams,  Rev.  John  (South  Seas),  210 
Wilson,  Captain  James,  90,  208 

of  Bombay,  Dr.  John,  115 

Wolff,  Rev.  Joseph  (Jews),  19 

Xavier,  38,  103,  144,  161 

Yedo,  Treaty  of,  162 

Zeisberger,  David  (North  American 
Indians),  72 

IZiegenbalg  (India),  55 
Ziuzendorf,  18,  63-66 


THE    END 


MISSIONS,  GENERAL 
Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress. 

A  Sociological  Study  of  Foreign  Missions.     By  Rev.  James 
S.  Dennis,  D.D.     Students'  Lecturer  on  Missions,  Prince- 
ton,   1893  and  1896.     With  over   100   Illustrations  from 
Photographs.      2  vols.,  8vo,  cloth,  gilt  top,  each,  $2. so. 
"  A  new  and  notable  book  on  foreign  missions.'   Their  influence 
is  studied    from   the  view-point  of  the  sociologist,  and   results  of 
fresh  interest  are  brought  forward.     The  Evangelistic  aim  is  duly 
honored  as  paramourt:    but  special   attention   is   devoted  to  the 
social  significance  of  mission  work  as  introducing  stimulating  and 
corrective   ideals,  giving  promise  of  beneficent  and   far-reaching 
changes  in  the  status  of  non-Christian  peoples.      The  author  has 
taken  great  pains  to  inform  himself  as  to  the  social  conditions  of 
heathenism. 

Foreign  Missions  After  a  Century. 

By  Rev.  James  S.  Dennis,  D.D.  Foiirlh  edilion.  8vo, 
cloth,  $1.50. 

"  A  broad,  philosophical,  and  systematic  view  of  the  missionary 
work  in  its  relation  to  the  living  Church."— 77^^'  [nde/>ende?it. 

A  Concise  History  of  Missions. 

By  Rev.  Edward  Munsell  Bliss,  D.D.     lOmo,  cloth,  75c. 

Strategic  Points  in  the  World's  Conquest. 

The  Universities  and  Colleges  as  related  to  the  Progress 
of  Christianity.  By  John  R.  Mott.  With  a  Map.  Foiirlh 
thousand.      i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

A  New  Programme  of  Missions. 

A  Movement  to  make  the  Colleges  of  all  Lands  Centers  ot 
Evangelization.  By  Luther  D.  Wishard.  Introduction  by 
Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D.     i6mo,  paper,  2'5c. ;  cloth,  soc. 

The  Missionary  Pastor. 

Helps  for  Developing  the  Missionary  Life  of  his  Church, 
By  Rev.  J.  E.  Adams.  With  Charts  by  R.  J.  Kellogg. 
i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

The  Student  Missionary  Enterprise. 

Proceedings  of  the  Convention  of  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement,  Detroit,  1894.     ^^o,  cloth,  $1,50. 

"  Make  Jesus  King." 

The  Report  of  the  International  Students'  Missionary  Con- 
ference, Liverpool,  1890.     8vo,  cloth,  net,  §1.50. 


IM/SS/ONS,  .AMERICA. 
On  the   Indian   Trail, 

And  Other  Stories  of  Missionary  Work  among  the  Cree 
and  Saulteaux  hidians.       By  Egerton  R.  Young.      Illus- 
trated by  J.  E.  Laughlin.      i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 
Mr.  Young  is  well  known  to  readers  of  all  ages  as  the  author 
of  "  B3' Canoe  and  Dog  Train,"  "Three  Boys  in  the  Wild  North 
Land,"  and  other  very  popular  books  describing  life  and  adventure 
in  the  great  Northwest.     The  stories  in  this  new  book  tell  of  some 
very  e.xciting  incidents  in  his  career,  and  describe  phases  of  life 
among  the  American  Indians  which  are  fast  becoming  things  of 
the  past. 

Forty-two  Years  Among  the  Indians  and 
Eskimos. 

Pictures  from  the  Life  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  John  Horden,  first 
Bishop  of  Moosonee.  By  Beatrice  Batty.  Illustrated. 
i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

\"i kings  of  To-Day; 

Or,  Life  and  Medical  Work  among  the  Fishermen  of 
Labrador.  By  Wilfred  T.  Grenfel,  M.D.,  of  the  Deep 
Sea    Mission.       Illustrated    from    Original    Photographs. 

Second  edition.      i2mo,   cloth,  $i.2S. 

"The  author  has  been  in  charge  of  the  work  since  its  inception, 
and  writes,  accordmgly,  with  special  authority  and  wealth  of  detail, 
both  as  to  the  methods  of  work  and  as  to  the  people— the  fearless, 
patient  Vikings— to  whom  he  has  dedicated  his  life."— y/^f  Jix- 
aviiner. 

Amid  Greenhmd  Snows; 

Or,  The  Early  History  of  Arctic  Missions.  By  Jesse  Page. 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Tenth  thous- 
and.     i2mo,  cloth,  7=ic. 

Kin-da-Shon's  Wife. 

An  Alaskan  Story.      By  Mrs.  Eugene  S.  Willard.      Illus- 
trated.     Third  edition.     8vo,  cloth,  $1.50. 
"  From   beginning  to  end   the   book  holds  the  attention,     Mrs. 

Willard  has  shown  herself  peculiarly  well  qualified  to  write  such 

a  book." — Piiblic  Opinion. 

David  Brainerd, 

The  Apostle  to  the  North  American  Indian^.  By  Jesse 
Page.  Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Tteelfth 
thousand.      i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

South  America,  the  Neglected  Continent. 

By  Lucy  E.  Guinness  and  E.  C.  Millard.  With  a  Map 
in  colors  and  many  other  Illustrations  Small  4to,  paper, 
50c.;  cloth,  75c. 


IM/SSIONS,    .AFRICA. 
The  Personal  Life  of  David  Livingstone. 

Chiefly  from  his  unpublished  journals  aiul  coiiespondeiice 
in  tile  possession  of  his  family.      By  W.  Garden  Blaikih, 
D.D.,  LL.D.     With  Portrait  and  Map.     Neu^,  cheap  edi- 
tion.    508  pages,  8vo,  cloth,  $1.50. 
"There  is  throughout  the  narrative  that  glow  of  interest  wliich 

is  realized  while  events  arc  comparatively  recent,  with  that  also 

which  is  still  fresh  and  tender." — The  Standard. 

David   Livingstone. 

His  Labors  and  His  Legacy.  By  A.  Montefioke,  F.R.G.S. 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  lOo  pages, 
i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

David   Livingstone. 

By  Mrs.  J.  H.  Worcester,  Jr  ,  Missionary  Annals  Series. 
i2mo,  paper,  net,  15c.;  flexible  cloth,  net,  30c. 

Reality   vs.  Romance    in    South    Central 
Africa. 

Being  an  Account  of  a  Journey  across  the  AJrican  Conti- 
nent, from  Benguella  on  the  West  Coast  to  the  mouth  ot 
tliie  Zambesi.  By  James  Johnston,  M.D.  With  51  full- 
page  photogravure  reproductions  of  photographs  by  the 
author,  and  a  map.     Royal  8vo,  cloth,  boxed,  $4.00. 

The  Story  of  Uganda 

And  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza  Mission.  By  S.  G.  Stock. 
Illustrated.      i2mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

"To   be  commended   as  a   good,   brief,   general   survey  of  the 
Protestant  missionary  work  in  Uganda."— T'/zt-  Literary  World. 

Robert  Moffat, 

The  Missionary  Hero  of  Kuruman.  By  David  J.  Deane. 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  2^th  thoiisjini. 
i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

Robert  Moffat. 

By  M.  L.  Wilder.  Missionary  Annals  Series.  i2mo, 
paper,  net,    i  sc ;  flexible  cloth,  net,  30c. 

The  Congo  lor  Christ. 

The  Story  of  the  Congo  Mission.  By  Rev.  John  B.  Myers. 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Tenth  thousand. 
i2mo,  cloth,  7SC. 

On   the  Congo. 

Edited  from  Notes  and  Conversations  of  Missionaries,  by 
Mrs.  H.  Grattan  Guinness.      i2mo,  paper,  50c. 


AMISSIONS.  INDIA. 
In  the  Tiger  Jungle. 

And  Other  Stories  of  Missionary  Work  among  the  Telugus. 

By  Rev.  Jacob  Chamberlain,  M.D.,  D.D.,  tor  37  years  a 

Missionary  in  hidia.     Illustrated.      i2mo,  doth,  $1.00. 

"  If  this  is  the  kind  of  missionary  who  mans  the  foreig^n  stations, 
they  will  never  fail  for  lack  of  enterprise.  .  .  .  The  book  is  withal 
a  vivid  and  .serious  portrayal  of  the  mission  work,  and  as  such 
leaves  a  deep  impression  on  the  reader."—  7/i^  Independent. 

The  Child  of  the  Ganges. 

A  Tale  of  the  Judson  Mission.  By  Prof.  R.  N.  Barrett, 
D.D.     Illustrated.      i2mo,  doth,  $i.2s. 

Adoniram  Judson. 

By  Julia  H.  Johnston.  Missionary  Annals  Series.  !2mo, 
paper,  net,  1  5c. ;  flexible  doth,  net,  30c. 

Once   Hindu,  now  Christian. 

The  Early  Life  of  Baba  Padmanji.  An  Autobiography, 
translated.  Edited  by  J.  Murray  Mitchell,  M.  A.  i6mo, 
doth,  75c. 

WilHam  Carey. 

The  Shoemaker  who  became  "  the  Father  and  Founder  of 
Foreign  Missions."  By  Rev.  John  B.  Myers.  Missionary 
Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Tisceniy-seconcl  thousand. 
1 2 mo,  doth,  75c. 

WilHam  Carey. 

By  Mary  E.  Farwell.  Missionary  Annals  Series.  i2mo, 
paper,  net,  15c.;  flexible  cloth,  net,  30c. 

Alexander  DufF. 

By  Elizabeth  B.  Vermilye.  Missionary  Annals  Scries. 
i2mo,  paper,  net,  15c.;  flexible  doth,  net,  ick'. 

Reginald  Heber, 

Bishop  of  Calcutta,  Scholar  and  Evangdist.  By  Arthur 
Montefiore.  Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated. 
i2mo,  cloth,  7SC. 

Heavenly  Pearls  Set  in  a  Life. 

A  Record  of  Experiences  and  Labors  in  America.  India, 
and  Australia.  By  Mrs.  Lucy  D.  Osborn.  Illustrated. 
i2mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 


''ll'ffili'wilfftffil,.?SI|i"=7  Libraries 


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